Kataeb Expects 'Positive Solutions' in Waste Crisis as Shehayyeb Urges Cooperation

Resigned Economy Minister Alain Hakim of the Kataeb Party has announced that “positive solutions” are expected to surface in the coming days regarding the recurrent waste management and collection crisis.

The expected positive developments involve removing the accumulating garbage from the streets, setting a deadline for waste treatment and sorting, and the municipal implementation of waste management decentralization, Hakim told OTV.

“The only solution is to set up sorting and preliminary treatment plants at the level of municipalities or municipal unions,” he said.

And in response to a question, the minister said “we all want to achieve results, not to obstruct,” noting that “cooperation between all parties, especially between Kataeb and the Free Patriotic Movement, will inevitably lead to positive developments.”

In remarks to al-Liwaa newspaper published Saturday, Hakim had revealed that Kataeb and the FPM are discussing a solution based on “setting a transitional period ranging from eight months to one year; creating an environmental-health supervision committee tasked with overseeing the storage of waste in the specified locations; devising a plan based on decentralization and municipalities; granting the municipalities their pending funds and technical assistance; and dismantling the old 'garbage mountain' in Bourj Hammoud.”

MP Alain Aoun of the FPM meanwhile told al-Joumhouria newspaper that “all contacts are focusing on developing the formula that was reached by the Finance and Budget Parliamentary Committee, which involves the reopening of the Bourj Hammoud landfill with strict supervision of the sorting process.”

“Simultaneously, efforts would be exerted to ensure the readiness of municipalities to treat waste in their areas through the creation of treatment plants or incinerators within a deadline not exceeding one year,” Aoun added, noting that the civil society would take part in the supervision of the operations.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb, who is in charge of implementing the government’s emergency waste management plan, hoped that an agreement will be reached to remove the accumulating garbage from the streets of Metn, Keserwan and some parts of Beirut during a meeting that will be held Tuesday at the Interior Ministry.

“There is no choice but to implement the transitional waste management plan in order to move to the permanent plan,” he said, in remarks to al-Liwaa newspaper.

He also noted that he is “open to all remarks aimed at improving and supporting the solution, because it is unacceptable to leave garbage on the streets and create environmental and health hazards.”

“We have not at all rejected dialogue with the relevant parties and those who have another solution let them present it,” Shehayyeb added, rejecting “the principle of rejection for the sake of rejection.”

“The objections must be environmental or else let those opposing shoulder the responsibility of leaving garbage on the streets,” he said.

“The committee is ready to resolve obstacles and avoid shortcomings in order to back up the plan and partnership is necessary to reach a solution because the problem is affecting everyone in the country, not only one group,” Shehayyeb added, urging all parties not to “politicize the file” and to be “realistic.”

Protesters from the Kataeb Party and several environmentalist and civil society groups have been staging a sit-in outside the Bourj Hammoud site for several weeks and on August 11 students from the Kataeb Party managed to force the suspension of works aimed at setting up a new seaside landfill.

The protesters and activists have accused authorities of seeking to “land-fill the sea” with unsorted and unrecycled garbage in a manner that poses environmental and health risks and violates the Convention for Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution.

The Bourj Hammoud Municipality has also prevented garbage trucks from accessing a temporary storage site in the area, accusing the government of failing to respect the agreement that preceded the emergency plan.

The closure of the temporary storage site has prompted the Sukleen waste management firm to suspend garbage collection in several areas in Mount Lebanon and Beirut, which has resulted in a new pileup of trash on the streets.

The country's unprecedented waste management crisis erupted in July last year when the country's central landfill in Naameh was closed amid the government's failure to find alternatives.

The crisis saw streets, forests and riverbeds overflowing with trash for several months and triggered unprecedented street protests against the entire political class that sometimes turned violent.

Experts have long 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.