Report: Govt to Focus on Waste Crisis as Landfills Approach Maximum Capacity
Lebanon's waste management crisis surfaces once more as the two major landfills in the country approach maximum capacity, meanwhile the government prepares to tackle the controversial file in addition to 67 items on its agenda during its meeting on Tuesday.
A number of options are placed on the Cabinet table which include a suggestion proposed by the Council for Development and Reconstruction CDR for expanding the Costa Brava and Burj Hammoud temporary landfills, al-Liwaa daily said Monday.
Another option calls for the construction of a waste disposal plant and development of a waste sorting plant in al-Amrousieh and al-Karantina. The environment ministry has also suggested an integrated solid waste management policy, added the daily.
Costa Brava and Burj Hammoud landfills were opened as part of a four-year plan to resolve the waste crisis that emerged in Lebanon in April 2016, eight months after the closure of the Naameh landfill, which received garbage from Beirut and Mount Lebanon.
The two landfills are reaching maximum capacity.
In that regard, Education Minister Marwan Hamadeh wondered about a solution plan submitted previously by the minister of environment to use thermal decomposition, he asked: “Was there truly a plan? We will shed light on that during Tuesday's meeting to find a solution he said.”
The waste management crisis escalated largely in 2015 across Lebanon, was a particular threat for children and old people, and constituted a rights violation.
Rivers of rubbish flooding populated areas across the country, including in central Beirut, put the spotlight on Lebanon's waste problem but the rights group said a silent crisis had been unfolding elsewhere for years.
Early in December, Human Rights Watch warned in a report that the open burning of waste in Lebanon poses serious health risks, blaming decades-old, across the board government failure.
On another note, Hamadeh also said he will raise the issue of “non-acceptance of the credentials of new Saudi ambassador to Lebanon Walid al-Yaacoub,” the daily quoted him, adding “a country like Saudi Arabia that have supported Lebanon for 70 years and hosts about 250 thousand Lebanese nationals should not be treated this way.”
Source: Naharnet
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