Report: Lengthy Cabinet Session on Trash Divided over Gains

Lebanon's cabinet that spent almost eight-hour in session was marred by what ministerial reports described as “outbidding and blackmail” in order for some ministers to roll up a bargain from the trash solution, An Nahar daily reported on Sunday.

The session which lasted for more than eight hours has witnessed “outbidding and blackmail” in order for some ministers to get the biggest bulk of the profits, prompting Prime Minister Tammam Salam to threaten to suspend the session and carry out his threat to resign from the cabinet, unnamed ministerial sources told the daily.

Salam was quoted as addressing the ministers during the session, he said: “If any of the discussions taking place at this session were leaked and the people learn that the dispute is based on financial gains, while they believe that we are here to discuss how to end the crisis, then the government cannot continue to cover this situation.”

He was threatening to resign from the cabinet.

On Saturday, the government announced a temporary solution for the country's eight-month trash crisis by opening three landfills as thousands protested in downtown Beirut.

Information Minister Ramzi Jreij said after the cabinet meeting that the temporary solution will last four years and by then a permanent solution will be in place.

In Beirut more than 2,000 protesters rejected the option of temporary landfills and demanded a more long-term waste-disposal plan.

The trash crisis began in July, when the country's main landfill in the town of Naameh just south of Beirut was scheduled to close, with no real alternative landfills available. Naameh area residents said the dump was over capacity and began blocking the roads to prevent garbage trucks from reaching it.

As garbage began piling up in Beirut, protesters formed the "You Stink" movement, demanding sweeping reform in Lebanon's government.

Since the peaks of the protest in the summer, authorities have blunted the public anger by ensuring that the streets of Beirut are kept relatively garbage-free. However, the trash has been pushed to the city's periphery, where it piles up along the roadside and the banks of the Beirut River.

Jreij said that the Naameh landfill will be reopened for two months to take in tens of thousands of tons of trash that have piled around the country. He added that two other landfills and treatment plants will be opened, north and south of Beirut.

Jreij said the state will compensate areas that host landfills with significant payments and development projects. He said the government will pay $6 for every ton that is sent to Naameh.

Jreij said the government will distribute $40 million this year to municipalities that agree to host landfills and spend another $50 million over the next four years on development projects in those areas.

Assad Thebian, one of the protest organizers since the trash crisis began, told The Associated Press that activists are studying the government's plan and will make an announcement soon.

Earlier Saturday, more than 2,000 protesters chanted: "We are fed up." The protesters vowed to escalate on Monday by "paralyzing the movement in the country."