Wastewater treatment plant to be built on Byblos Campus
LAU-Byblos and Balamand University are making headway towards the creation of two wastewater treatment plants that will serve both university communities and provide a training stage for students, engineers and municipal operators.
Plans for design, construction and operation of the pilot plants (one at each university) were approved during a meeting held at the Byblos Campus May 16–18, 2005.
The €3.4 million project, officially identified as Efficient Management of Waste Water, its Treatment and Reuse is funded by the European Union and involves six countries working in partnership: Germany, Italy, Palestine, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Delegates from these countries discussed progress reports, action plans and budgetary issues during the meeting in May.
Once operational, the facilities will be used for teaching purposes and most importantly for training local engineers and prospective municipality plant treatment operators.
LAU and Balamand U. have already scheduled for this summer, specialized training workshops on recent advances in wastewater treatment technologies.
The project will continue through April 2007. It had kicked off in April 2003, driven by the efforts of Deans Fuad Hashwa (LAU) and Michel Najjar (Balamand).
The project coordinator, Dr. Ismail Al-Baz from InWent-Capacity Building International in Berlin, Germany, along with the rest of the delegates, appreciated the tireless work of project managers Dr. Sima Tokajian (LAU) and Dr. Najib Gerges (Balamand) for bringing the meeting to fruition.