State Plays Down Naameh Residents Demands as Garbage Piles Up

Activists and protesters near the Naameh garbage landfill complain that the government is not dealing with their demands “seriously” as the road leading to the dump remained shut.

The Council for Development and Reconstruction deems that there are no swift solution to the problem.

“The most realistic solution is finding a new landfill to sort and compose (organic) waste before transferring them to Naameh landfill,” a source in CDR said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

He pointed out that finding a new land and a disposal waste treatment plant would require at least 6 month.

The source said that only the government can pledge to close the Naameh landfill.

The blockade of the road leading to Naameh landfill by protesters kicked off on Saturday after activists and residents in the nearby areas complained of what they described as bad living conditions.

The protesters prevented Sukleen dump trucks from entering the landfill, calling on the state to resolve the matter.

Garbage in Beirut and Mount Lebanon piled up on roadsides as Sukleen assured that street sweepers would continue cleaning streets and that dumpsters would be sprayed with pesticides.

The latest Sukleen statement had noted that the Council for Development and Reconstruction and other relevant authorities were looking into alternative solutions to the problem, pointing out that finding a new landfill was “the Lebanese state's responsibility, not the company's.”

Protesters expressed good will gesture and opened the road leading to the landfill for 48 hours, however, the road was blocked again after negotiations with CDR failed to resolve the crisis.

Landfills are not designed to break down trash, merely to bury it

Ajwad al-Ayyach, the spokesman of “Campaign to Close the Naameh Landfill,” stressed in comments published in As Safir newspaper that the protesters will go on with their open-end sit-in, rejecting any negotiations.

“We demand that the competent authorities set a deadline to close the landfill... End garbage burying in the landfill and formation of a committee by residents to oversee the process,” he noted.

Sukleen is the only company tasked with collecting garbage in the governorates of Beirut and Mount Lebanon.