Visit of Tamar Zandberg

Minister of Environmental Protection Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) visited WASNS on January 18, at the invitation of development director Samah Salaime.

Zandberg was greeted by municipal society chairwoman Rita Boulos and by Samah. In the framework of her tour of the village, she first stopped at the hotel, which is currently undergoing renovation, and then continued to the primary school, where she met with the principal, Neama Abo Dalu, and members of the staff.

The Minister was impressed by our efforts to combine peace-building with green, environmentally friendly solutions for energy saving, waste management and environmental education (the concept of “eco-peace”).

Among the topics discussed was the village plan to cover the roofs of some of its public buildings with solar panels. Our members asked if she could explore avenues for state funding for this project.

Government funding for solar electricity projects is usually limited to buildings, such as schools, that are situated on state land, whereas our school and hotel are built on private land. Nevertheless, Zandberg committed to checking whether something could be done. With greater certainty, she said that we could obtain containers for composting and additional facilities for our recycling corner.

During the primary school, another project was discussed: The 5th graders, in the framework of a regional competition, had proposed to create a phone application that would allow students from schools all around to network in identifying features of their local biomes. Zandberg promised to look into options for state support for such a project.

Because the visit came just two days after the arson attack on the village’s main office building, we also requested that she spread awareness of the incident among her political contacts.

This was the first visit by a member of the current government to WASNS, and one that focused on our projects and needs. We hope to be able to initiate similar visits in the future.