Beirut Municipality Asks Cabinet to Allow It to Send Garbage Abroad

W460

Beirut Municipality on Thursday called on the council of ministers to allow it to “hire specialized firms to send garbage abroad as a solution to the problem of disposing of the waste of the city of Beirut.”

The municipality reached its decision during an extraordinary meeting dedicated to the garbage crisis.

The conferees agreed that the capital is going through “a disastrous environmental situation,” noting that they aim to “prevent the recurrence of the painful experience that Beirut's residents have suffered.”

During the meeting, the municipality members were briefed by environmental experts on “the consequences that might befall the capital as a result of another accumulation of trash in its streets.”

In their statement, the conferees also noted that “the temporary solution that the Beirut Municipality started implementing yesterday will not last for long.”

On Wednesday, garbage trucks belonging to the capital's waste collector, Sukleen, started removing garbage from Beirut's streets and dumping them in the Karantina area on the capital's eastern peripheries, as part of an “emergency plan.”

Earlier on Thursday, the government failed to agree on measures to manage the country's waste crisis, which Prime Minister Tammam Salam blamed on the political conflict.

A ministerial committee chaired by Salam found earlier this week a temporary solution to begin taking trash to several landfills in undisclosed locations. But its decision was met with severe criticism and protests by residents and local officials who refused the waste of Beirut and Mount Lebanon to be dumped in their areas.

The unprecedented garbage crisis erupted after the closure of the Naameh landfill on July 17.

The crisis has seen streets overflowing with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting garbage for around two weeks.

Experts have urged the government to devise a comprehensive waste management solution that would include more recycling and composting to reduce the amount of trash going into landfills.

But so far there has been no evidence of such a plan, and there is already opposition to the temporary solutions.

Y.R.

Comments 11
Thumb EagleDawn 30 July 2015, 22:12

"The unprecedented garbage crisis erupted after the closure of the Naameh landfill on July 17."

on the other hand Mystic disagrees and says"
"Mystic
Hariris company sukleen suddenly stopped working under orders from Saudi Arabia.

Everybody knows it is Hariri and the Saudis that controls Sukleen.

Just because they failed to get their way in politics, they now dump the garbage all over Beirut in a matter of defiance."

Missing ramezg 30 July 2015, 22:24

This allegation is preposterous! One only need to have followed the Naameh landfill story over the past two years in order to understand that the Lebanese government and the Beirut municipality have been dragging their feet for a long time. Lebanon should have build recycling plants and composting plants many years ago. The country would also benefit from a trash-burning power plant à la Stockholm. Since the Lebanese people will not in a million years sort their garbage at the source for recycling purposes, the municipalities should have long ago built garbage processing facilities to separate the recyclables from the compostables from the trashables.

Thumb Mystic 31 July 2015, 00:17

Sukleen will not allow it.

Missing helicopter 31 July 2015, 07:08

Iran will not allow Lebanon to exist except as a welayat of the welayat elfaqih. But the few, the proud, the TRUE Lebanese will not allow it to pass, Protectors of the Cedars will stand up to HA and to ISIS.

Thumb Elemental 31 July 2015, 19:16

Nice copy/paste of you, very original *FT.naharnet.

Thumb Mystic 31 July 2015, 00:20

You live in Canada, and you consider yourself true? You do not smell it everyday.

Thumb Elemental 31 July 2015, 06:13

You're an Iranian implant, be quiet.

Thumb Elemental 31 July 2015, 19:14

Mystic, loving the passive aggressive fake accounts you and FT have been using, keep it up! Very Iranian of you to begin with, so it's expected.

Missing humble 31 July 2015, 00:50

Listen to Neemat Frem who proposed an excellent solution.

Default-user-icon cabaleros18 (Guest) 31 July 2015, 08:17

Picture this: The Cabinet meets {quorum or not}, as soon a the gavel starts the session the good people of Lebanon surround the building and underground exits effectively holding the cause of the problems captive. Nobody gets fed till the trash is gone and a President is elected. The little boys in the cabinet will never agree on anything unless they have no choice.

Missing phillipo 01 August 2015, 09:45

They have been sending garbage abroad for years, it's called Hizballah.