A scientific event by the Higher institute for regional planning At Damascus University auditorium

Under the patronage of Prof. Dr. Mohsen Bilal, Head of the Central Higher Education Office,and In the presence of the Governor of Damascus, Mr. Tariq Kreishati, Mr. Suhail Abdel Latif, Minister of Public Works and Housing, the president of Damascus University Prof.Ossama Al Jabban,the Secretary of Al-Baath Party Branch at the University of Damascus, Dr. Khaled Al-Halbouni, the Assistant Minister of Higher Education, Dr. FadiaDeeb, and finally the President of the Syrian Engineers Syndicate, a scientific event was held at Damascus University auditorium to commemorate the passage of the first one centenary of the founding of Damascus University 1923-2023.

The Higher Institute for Regional Planning made this event as a celebration of its research project on the Barada River revival winning first place as the best research project at the Italian University of Sapienza as it also coincides with the celebration of one century milestone since founding the University of Damascus.

This scientific event included three main axes, the first of which was a brief lecture by the Italian Professor AntoninoBelliteri on the history of Syria in the modern Islamic era, while the second axis included a speech by Prof. Ghada Bilal, the supervisor of the Barada River research project, who spoke about the opening of the Barada laboratory at the Italian University of La Sapienza, while the third and last axis included honoring the participants in the success of this research project.

Syriatimes met with Prof. Dr. Ghada Bilal, Barada Project Manager, who told us more about this event:

“Today, on the occasion of the centennial celebration of the University of Damascus, the Higher Institute for Regional Planning is holding important events and activities at an international level, the most important of which was the winning of the Barada River research project at the Italian Sapienza University. Based on this win , the Barada research laboratory was created at the Italian Sapienza University in  addition there is  supervision of  international students doing this research, including our Syrian students, who were given the possibility to participate in this research through scholarships offered to graduate students, masters and doctoral degrees”.

Bilal added:” In addition to that, we have made new agreements with Italian universities and the Erasmus Scholarship Program with the aim of finding suitable scientific and research scholarships for postgraduate students, university professors, and even for cadres and administrators. So far, we have made agreements with three Italian universities, despite the difficulty of communication and travel to other countries in light of the sanctions that Syria is witnessing, , we were able to achieve some of what we aspire to.

And then we asked Prof.Ghada Bilal if we would witness tangible results to revive Barada River in real life?

Prof Ghada told us that, of course, with the presence of the Governor of Damascus, Mr. Tariq Kreishati, who will be honored today at the end of this event for his serious follow-up with us, not only that but he is also offering every help possible on the implementation of the Barada River project, as we have started  implementing the first stage.

Will we see upcoming European collaborations, as is the case today with an Italian university?

Firstly, as you can see we were able, as a higher institute for regional planning, to communicate with foreigners through our scientific research, and we are certainly working to expand the circle of our relations with other countries, if we have the opportunity to do so.

Also Prof.Belliteri , in his brief lecture which he commenced by expressing his great happiness to be part of this event especially that he was a lecturer at Damascus University , Department of languages, teaching the Italian language in mid 70s quoted a number of great Arab and Islamic researcher who mentioned the daily lives of Syrians by the Barada river such as Jamal Al deen Al Qassimi , Ahmad Al BudaireeHallak .

While also a virtual participation of two Italian Professors and one Syrian Professor, through recorded videos from the University of Sapienza was included , as they congratulated the Syrian side on the centennial celebration of the Founding of Damascus University, and expressed their interest for further collaboration between the two Universities.

Syria Times also met with one of the participants in the event, engineer Rama Haj Hassan, Master of Engineering Projects at Damascus University, who told us about her participation in the scientific research of the Barada River project through the Barada laboratory:

“My participation in the Barada laboratory was through the establishment of a database, where we looked at the current state of the river to evaluate its status and put the existing basic data on which we will launch and develop the work to revive the Barada River. My participation was based on my master’s thesis, which included the development of a multi-criteria model for evaluating scenarios for the rehabilitation of the Barada River, and thus the official decision can be taken based on the criteria that we studied and balanced enough in order to take the most appropriate decision regarding the rehabilitation of the Barada River”.

Finally, the event ended by honoring all the personnel who contributed to the success of the research of Barada river project.

Leen Al Salman