Dozens of lorries begin carrying rubbish swamping Beirut to landfills as temporary solution to eight-month crisis.

The Lebanese government has launched a bid to dispose of the mountains of rubbish swamping the suburbs of the capital Beirut, in what residents hope will lead to the end of the country’s eight-month garbage crisis.

On Saturday, dozens of lorries started carrying rubbish to the Naameh landfill just south of the city – one of three landfills opened as part of a temporary solution announced by the government a week ago.

The government said that Naameh, the country’s main landfill, will open again for just two months. The crisis began in July, when the landfill was scheduled to close with no realistic alternatives.

Naameh area residents said the dump was over capacity and began blocking the roads to prevent rubbish trucks from reaching it.

Despite anger by residents, there were no protests against the reopening of the landfill on Saturday.

In the north Beirut suburb of Jdeideh, home to one of the largest rubbish piles, a bulldozer loaded thousands of rubbish bags into trucks.

Fadwa Saad had to wear a mask to avoid the smell of the rubbish that could be seen from her balcony.

“We are coughing, we have allergies and there are mosquitoes and flies in our homes,” she said. “They say they are removing trash. We hope that they really remove it, not only do it for one day and leave the rest.”

As rubbish began piling up in Beirut last year, protesters formed the “You Stink” movement, demanding sweeping reform in Lebanon’s government – blamed for the mismanagement and neglect that led to the rubbish buildup and failure to act against it.

Since the peaks of the protest in the summer, authorities managed to blunt the public anger by ensuring that the streets of Beirut were kept relatively rubbish-free. However, the rubbish was instead pushed to the city’s periphery, where it piled up along roadsides and the banks of the Beirut River.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/trash-pickup-resumes-lebanon-month-garbage-crisis-beirut-160320035647973.html
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Lorries begin moving Beirut’s mountains of trash to landfill – Al Arabiya

Lorries began taking mountains of rubbish that have piled up in Beirut to a landfill site on Saturday under a plan the government approved to solve the seven-month garbage crisis, the body helping oversee disposal said.

The crisis, which began last July when the same Naameh landfill south of Beirut was closed with no plan in place for an alternative, has caused widespread protests against the dysfunctional state and raised concerns for public health.

Under the plan agreed on March 12, two landfills will be established near Beirut, and the Naameh landfill is being reopened for two months to receive garbage.

The Council for Reconstruction and Development said in a statement carried by the National News Agency that trucks had begun to enter Naameh. Preparations were still underway to open the new landfills, it said.

The government had been working on a plan to export the garbage. But this was scrapped last month because the firm chosen failed to obtain documents showing that Russia, the intended destination, had agreed to accept it.

The Lebanese cabinet has struggled to take even basic decisions due to political conflict among the rival parties represented in it.

Political deadlock has also left the country without a president for nearly two years.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2016/03/19/Lorries-begin-moving-Beirut-s-mountains-of-trash-to-landfill.html
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Trash Plan Kicks Off, First Dump Trucks Start Entering Naameh – Naharnet

A waste management plan that was approved last week was put into implementation on Saturday with the first garbage dump trucks entering the Naameh landfill that has been closed for over eight months.

Seven dump trucks entered Naameh that will receive only the trash that has accumulated on the streets of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, according to the cabinet’s plan.

Last week, the cabinet decided to establish two landfills in Costa Brava and Bourj Hammoud and to reactivate the Naameh landfill for two months as part of a four-year plan to resolve the country’s waste problem despite the rejection of many residents and civil society activists.

Preparation works kicked off Friday at the Costa Brava seaside site in Khalde where the government has decided to set up a garbage landfill as part of a plan to resolve the country’s long-running waste management crisis.

Lebanon’s unprecedented trash management crisis erupted in July 2015 after the closure of the Naameh which was receiving the waste of Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

The crisis, which sparked unprecedented protests against the entire political class, has seen streets, forests and riverbanks overflowing with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting and burning garbage.

A landfill’s location in the Shouf and Aley areas will be determined later following consultations with the local municipalities, the cabinet said.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/204946-trash-plan-kicks-off-first-dump-trucks-start-entering-naameh
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Bulldozers Start Work at Costa Brava as ‘Dignitaries’ Agree to Naameh Landfill Temporary Reopening – Naharnet

Preparation works kicked off Friday at the Costa Brava seaside site in Khalde where the government has decided to set up a garbage landfill as part of a plan to resolve the country’s long-running waste management crisis.

“Bulldozers have started earthmoving works at the Costa Brava dump,” media reports said in the afternoon.

Speaking to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3), Choueifat municipal chief Melhem al-Souqi said the municipality was “surprised” by the start of works at Costa Brava.

“The garbage that has accumulated on the streets will be land-filled in Naameh,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Bourj Hammoud’s municipal chief told the radio station that garbage will start arriving at the area’s dump as of Monday at the latest.

“There is no popular opposition as some are claiming,” he stressed.

Voice of Lebanon, which interviewed several residents who oppose the presence of a landfill in their area, said policemen have deployed outside the site in anticipation of any unrest or protests.

Later on Friday, Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb announced that the popular and religious “dignitaries” of the Aramoun and Shahar regions had agreed to the reopening of the controversial Naameh landfill for two months only.

“No garbage will be brought to it in the future,” Shehayyeb reassured.

“After its permanent closure, the Naameh landfill will generate free electricity for the region,” he noted, thanking the residents for their “national responsibility.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat meanwhile extended gratitude to “all the political parties and civil society groups who contributed to the facilitating” the government’s waste disposal plan.

Lebanon’s unprecedented trash management crisis erupted in July 2015 after the closure of the Naameh landfill which was receiving the waste of Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

The crisis, which sparked unprecedented protests against the entire political class, has seen streets, forests and riverbanks overflowing with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting and burning garbage.

On Saturday, the cabinet decided to establish two landfills in Costa Brava and Bourj Hammoud and to reactivate the Naameh landfill for two months as part of a four-year plan to resolve the country’s waste problem despite the rejection of many residents and civil society activists.

A landfill’s location in the Shouf and Aley areas will be determined later following consultations with the local municipalities, the cabinet said.

Y.R.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/204907-bulldozers-start-work-at-costa-brava-as-dignitaries-agree-to-naameh-landfill-temporary-reopening