The Board of Directors of the Center of Excellence for Climate Change and Environmental Technology in AAUP held their regular meeting in AAUP Campus in Jenin to discuss the upcoming projects for the next period including the Novak and German projects. The members of the board also went in a field tour to the meteorological station, the greenhouse for smart agriculture, and the laboratory of the center which will be established before the end of the first half of this year.
The Board of Directors of the Center of Excellence for Climate Change and Environmental Technology in AAUP holds their regular meeting in the university
The meeting was headed by Prof. Mohammad Asia- the Deputy Head of the Center, with the presence of the Board members, Dr. Jacqueleen Joubran and Dr. Iyad Yaqoub- from Arab American University, Eng. Yousef Abu Asaad - from the Palestinian Meteorological Department, Eng. Basil Yassin- from the Energy Authority, Eng. Hanan Hijawi- from the Environmental Quality Authority, Eng. Ibtisam Abu Haijaa- from the Ministry of Agriculture and Eng. Hazim Kettaneh- from the Water Authority.
Prof. Asia- the Deputy Head of the Center started the meeting by welcoming the guests and transferring greetings from Prof. Waleed Deeb- the Head of the Board of Directors of the Center of Excellence for Climate Change. Prof. Asia then talked about the efforts that they do to activate and develop the center and ensured that the center provides services for all the governmental and community institutions by providing data, studies and researches that are already done in the center.
During the meeting, they discussed the needs of the under construction-laboratory of the center that will be in Jenin Campus, as this center will provide the interested entities with the information and scientific research related to agriculture and the environment, either the agriculture in the smart greenhouse that will be established in the university campus soon, or other agricultural projects in the governorates of the country. They discussed how the center will be provided with the latest technology and will be a consultancy center full of professionals in the agricultural, energy, water and environment sectors, especially that Palestine is in great need for such center to serve all sectors including mainly the agriculture and environment sectors.
Moreover, they ensured that the meteorological station will be ready and will start working in the coming 2 months, and that the smart greenhouse is expected to be ready in the next 6 months.
In their meeting they also discussed the projects that the board of directors provided to the supportive authorities in the field of environment especially concerning the toxic gas emissions, as they ensured on the importance of establishing stations to measure these emissions. This project will start working in the governorates near the sources of the emissions as those places are highly infected by the pollution. The German and Novak projects are part of these projects too. In addition, the members of the board ensured on the importance of providing new ideas, projects and scientific researches related to the environment and agriculture and providing consultations and important information to the workers in the agriculture sector either the governmental or non-governmental organizations or the community as well.
During the field tour to the projects’ sites, the members of the board asserted on the importance to start preparing the meteorological station that will arrive in less than 2 months and also prepare the site that the smart greenhouse will be built on.
