Khalil Urges End to Trash Crisis as Beirut Municipality Proposes Karantina as Temporary Dump

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil remarked that the garbage crisis in Lebanon “affects all people without discrimination between the sects or regions,” reported As Safir on Wednesday.

He therefore stressed that this issue should not be addressed through political and petty means.

“We need to speed up efforts to find a new dump to contain the waste crisis in Beirut and Mount Lebanon,” he told the daily.

He added however that there is no available land in Beirut that can contain the garbage.

There are around 870 random dumps in these areas and “we should work on organizing them and setting up ones that meet health standards,” explained the minister.

Meanwhile, head of the Beirut municipality Bilal Hamad told As Safir after an extraordinary municipal session that a temporary solution to the crisis is necessary for the capital.

He urged the cabinet to task Sukleen, the trash collecting company, to continue on collecting garbage in Beirut's administrative district and dumping them at the Karantina factories without landfilling them.

A company will meanwhile be tasked with providing property outside of Beirut to serve as a proper landfill.

Beirut and Mount Lebanon were plunged in a waste disposal crisis following the closure of the Naameh landfill last week in accordance with a government decision.

The closure caused trash to spill out of dumpsters after Sukleen failed to dispose of waste following the landfill's closure.

It said it can no longer fill up its premises with accumulated trash.