The ministerial committee tasked with following up on the months long trash management file kicked off a meeting at the Grand Serail on Saturday after the export plan failed to rid the country of its piling garbage.

“Discussions are to focus on reviving the plan to establish landfills in several areas in Lebanon,” Education Minister Elias Abou Saab said before he joined the interlocutors.

“We will go back to the plan that was set before, and everyone must become convinced of the role of the municipalities and the necessity to supply them with the necessary funds.”

Minister Nabil De Freije stated: “We are back to the solution of establishing landfills.”

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq told LBCI: “We will specify the locations of the landfills before we ask for legal support.”

The committee’s meeting ended at noon and another session was scheduled for Monday.

A plan to export Lebanon’s garbage has been abandoned early this week when a scandal broke out revealing that Britain’s Chinook Urban Mining company, which was selected by the government in December to manage the export scheme, may have fabricated its permits.

The ministerial committee headed by Prime Minister Tammam Salam is said to discuss the areas where landfills would be established to receive the trash of Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

The trash crisis erupted in July 2015 when the Naameh landfill, which opened in 1997 in a verdant valley outside Beirut, was closed.

Garbage quickly piled up on Beirut and Mount Lebanon streets and municipalities dumped the trash in forests, on riverbanks and populated areas.

Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb drew a plan to rely on sanitary landfills but the government abandoned it in November after municipalities and local officials refused to accommodate more landfilling.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/202630-committee-tasked-with-trash-crisis-meets-reviving-landfills-focus-of-discussions
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Waste Management Talks to Gain Momentum after Export Plan Dropped – Naharnet

Discussions on ways to resolve Lebanon’s waste crisis will gain momentum over the weekend after the government abandoned a plan to export the garbage bringing the issue back to square one.

A ministerial committee headed by Prime Minister Tammam Salam was revived and will meet on Saturday to discuss the areas where landfills would be established to receive the trash of Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

The trash crisis erupted in July 2015 when the Naameh landfill, which opened in 1997 in a verdant valley outside Beirut, was closed.

Garbage quickly piled up on Beirut and Mount Lebanon streets and municipalities dumped the trash in forests, on riverbanks and populated areas.

Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb drew a plan to rely on sanitary landfills but the government abandoned it in November after municipalities and local officials refused to accommodate more landfilling.

In December, the cabinet approved a waste export plan. But a scandal broke out earlier this week when it was revealed that Britain’s Chinook Urban Mining company, which was selected by the government to manage the export scheme, may have fabricated its permits.

Chinook is required to obtain official approval from Russia – the importing nation – before it can sign a final contract with Lebanese authorities.

The government gave the firm until 10 am Friday to produce the necessary permits or else the Lebanese authorities would return to a plan to rely on landfills.

But the Council for Development and Reconstruction announced at noon that Chinook was not able to provide it with the necessary documents that prove it has received the permits from Russia.

CDR will inform the company to consider as void an initial approval by the Lebanese authorities for Chinook to export the waste, it added.

Shehayyeb said he has informed the government that he would no longer be in charge of the file.

The minister told As Safir daily that he has carried out his duties and his “conscience is clear.”

Shehayyeb, who is a member of the Progressive Socialist Party, distanced himself from the scandal after reports that PSP officials were benefiting from the plan to export waste.

G.K.

D.A.