Beirut Port Employees Protest Decision to Dump Trash in Block AB

Employees of the Beirut Port held a sit-in on Thursday protesting an alleged government decision to use a nearby real estate as a dump site.

MTV said that more than 100 employees staged the sit-in and prevented trucks transporting goods from entering the port causing long queues at the Port entrance.

Reports have said that a decision was made to use block AB in the Port as a dump site for the waste that has been accumulating in several areas.

Head of the Union of Beirut Port Employees Beshara al-Asmar told LBCI: “Today's move is only a warning against dumping wastes in the Port's vicinity.”

“We will not accept the capital's trash to be accumulated in the Port. Moreover it will affect the employees' health,” warning of escalatory measures.

In July, a waste-management crisis swept through the capital and Mount Lebanon after the closure of the Naameh landfill that received trash from the said areas.

Streets overflew with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting garbage.

The government pledged last year that Naameh landfill would be closed on July 17 and an alternative site be found, which never happened.

A temporary deal was found later on to begin taking trash to several landfills in undisclosed locations.

The chosen locations have filled with trash in light of the absence of a substitute for Naameh, triggering a major concern.

Last week, three private companies submitted bids to manage Beirut's waste without declaring a disposing ground.

Despite the good signals that a solution to the trash crisis may be looming, the lack of finding a disposing ground poses a major risk and heralds a long way ahead for a radical solution, as municipalities dump wastes in populated areas, valleys and forests.

D.A.

G.K.