Prof. Dr. Wesal Fakhri Hassan, Head of the Dept of Applied Marine Sciences has participated in the debate committee of the doctoral candidate, Baida Alawi Hassan, from the College of Agriculture, Department of Soil Sciences and Water Resources. Her thesis was entitled “The effect of zeolite and rice husk ash on reducing salinity of groundwater in Basra and reusing it in irrigation of tomato plants”. The thesis discussed the reclamation of sandy soil, treatment of saline wells, and reduction of its salinity into agriculturally acceptable levels, using natural materials with low cost.