Salam Requests Security Forces to Monitor Implementation of Trash Plan to Avoid Unrest – NAHARNET
by Naharnet Newsdesk
Prime Minister Tammam Salam chaired on Monday a ministerial security meeting to address the latest developments in Lebanon, as well as the implementation of the trash disposal plan that was adopted by cabinet over the weekend.
Salam requested the heads of military and security forces to monitor the implementation of the plan to prevent any possible unrest.
Held at the Grand Serail, the meeting was attended by Defense Minister Samir Moqbel, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, General Prosecutor Judge Samir Hammoud, Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji, Internal Security Forces chief Ibrahim Basbous, General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim, State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr, Military Intelligence chief Edmond Fadel, and ISF Intelligence Bureau head Imad Othman.
The gatherers also addressed efforts to combat crime throughout Lebanon, in addition to the army and security forces’ operations against terrorists in the country and along its eastern border.
The government announced on Saturday a temporary solution for the country’s eight-month trash crisis by opening three landfills.
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 while two other landfills and treatment plants will be opened in Bourj Hammoud north of Beirut and Nahr al-Ghadir area (Costa Brava) that lies south of the capital.
Activists have however demanded a more long-term waste-disposal plan with many taking to the streets of Beirut on Monday to protest the plan.
Lebanon plunged in a waste disposal crisis following the July 2015 closure of the Naameh dump, which resulted in the piling of trash on the streets throughout the country.
M.T.
Y.R.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/204534-salam-requests-security-forces-to-monitor-implementation-of-trash-plan-to-avoid-unrest
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Cabinet Approves Landfills Plan as Protesters Pledge General Strike – NAHARNET
by Naharnet Newsdesk
The cabinet approved on Saturday to establish two landfills and reactivate another one temporarily as part of a four-year plan to resolve the country’s eight-month-long waste problem despite the rejection of civil society activists who called for a general strike.
Information Minister Ramzi Jreij said two landfills – in Bourj Hammoud and Nahr al-Ghadir areas – will be established, and the Naameh landfill will reopen for two months to receive waste that has accumulated in makeshift dumps.
A landfill’s location in the Shouf and Aley areas will be determined later following consultations with the local municipalities, said Jreij in his press briefing.
The cabinet tasked the interior ministry with drafting a bill on the incentives that should be provided to the municipalities located near the landfills at the cost of $8 million, he told reporters.
It also allotted $50 million for development projects in towns that lie near the landfills, Jreij stated.
He added that the waste of Beirut will be distributed to the Bourj Hammoud, Nahr al-Ghadir and Naameh dumps in addition to the Sidon incinerator.
Despite the cabinet solution to the waste crisis, which erupted when the Naameh landfill was closed in July 2015, more than 2,000 of civil society activists gathered in Ashrafiyeh’s Sassine Square and then marched to Riad al-Solh Square in downtown Beirut where the Grand Serail is located.
The protesters, waving Lebanese flags, shouted anti-government slogans, saying they would not accept any temporary solution to the waste problem.
“There should be sustainable development,” one demonstrator said.
“The final warning has been sent, and we are now in a new phase. On Monday we will paralyze the country,” the protest organizers said in a statement
They pledged to hold a general strike on Monday, saying they would block roads and not attend schools and universities.
They carried banners calling for the “fall of the government.”
Lebanon was plunged in a trash management crisis after the closure of the Naameh landfill where the waste of Beirut and Mount Lebanon was dumped.
The closure resulted in the pile up of garbage on the streets throughout the country, sparking environmental and health warnings over the prolongation of the problem.
Popular protests were held against the crisis last year.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam told the extraordinary cabinet session, which lasted more than seven hours, that Saturday’s plan is for a four-year period until a sustainable solution is found.
Salam reportedly accused Kataeb ministers, who expressed reservations to the scheme, of representing civil society in the cabinet.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/204357-cabinet-approves-landfills-plan-as-protesters-pledge-general-strike
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Berri Says Government Landfills Plan ‘Best that Can be Reached’ – NAHARNET
by Naharnet
Speaker Nabih Berri has defended the government’s decision to create a temporary solution for the country’s eight-month trash crisis, saying “it’s the best that can be reached.”
Following an extraordinary session on Saturday, the cabinet decided to temporarily reopen the Naameh landfill, whose closure in July last year sparked the country’s waste crisis.
The government also decided to open the Bourj Hammoud and Costa Brava landfills, which like Naameh lie outside Beirut.
The temporary solution will last four years and by then a permanent solution will be in place, it said.
Speaking to his visitors in Ain el-Tineh, Berri urged the government to immediately start with the implementation of its plan.
“There is a disaster on the streets as a result of more than 300,000 tons of (uncollected) waste,” said Berri, whose remarks were published in local dailies on Monday.
“There is no justification for the objections being raised here and there,” he said.
Berri told his visitors that he would stress during the next round of all-party talks to revive the parliament.
Asked whether he had high hopes that a president would be elected next month as claimed by al-Mustaqbal Movement chief Saad Hariri, Berri said: “We can’t stand idle.”
“All sides should be aware that holding the elections is a necessity,” the speaker added.
He warned that the March 8 alliance would be the biggest loser if it didn’t take the opportunity to elect a president.
The two main candidates for the elections are Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun and Marada Movement leader lawmaker Suleiman Franjieh, both of them March 8 officials.
G.K.
D.A.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/204474-berri-says-government-landfills-plan-best-that-can-be-reached
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‘You Stink’ Blocks Roads to Protest ‘Rubbish’ Government – NAHARNET
by Naharnet Newsdesk
Protesters from the “You Stink” movement sought on Monday to block several major roads that lead to Beirut, saying their move is aimed at rejecting the landfills that will be established by the state.
Police pushed dozens of protesters to the side of the highway in Dora and in another area in Hazmieh to stop them from blocking the roads during the early morning rush hour.
Security forces arrested a woman in Dora after she sat on the asphalt in the middle of the road despite the heavy rain.
In another area, demonstrators partly blocked the Khaldeh highway but it was reopened by police.
“Today we are sending a message to the government, these were symbolic actions,” said activist Assad Thebian.
“We are in discussion with unions and organizations to step up our action for next time.”
Another activist described the government of Prime Minister Tammam Salam as the cabinet of “rubbish,” saying it has tasked Sukleen with collecting the waste at a time when the company faces charges of squandering of funds.
The man warned the Lebanese that their children will die of cancer as a result of the landfills.
The trash crisis began in July, when the country’s main landfill in the town of Naameh just south of Beirut, was closed.
The government announced on Saturday a temporary solution for the country’s eight-month trash crisis by opening three landfills.
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 while two other landfills and treatment plants will be opened in Bourj Hammoud north of Beirut and Nahr al-Ghadir area (Costa Brava) that lies south of the capital.
But the activists are demanding a more long-term waste-disposal plan.
Earlier this month, “You Stink” posted on its Facebook page a jarring video of mountains of trash festering across Lebanon.
In one of the shots filmed by a drone, plastic bags containing rubbish can be seen stretching for miles like a flowing river.
The footage, which was widely shared ahead of the demonstration, mocked the tourism ministry over a video it had commissioned to highlight Lebanon’s natural beauty.
G.K.
D.A.
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Anti-Trash Activists Rally in Naameh, Choueifat, Vow to Block Beirut Entrances Monday Morning- NAHARNET
by Naharnet Newsdesk
Following a cabinet decision to open three landfills to remove the accumulating trash in several Lebanese areas, residents and anti-trash campaigners held sit-ins Sunday in the Naameh and Choueifat areas and declared that they would block “Beirut’s entrances” on Monday morning.
“We will escalate our protests tomorrow through blocking Beirut’s entrances in the morning for several hours,” civil society protesters announced from the Riad al-Solh Square, where an open-ended sit-in has been underway since Saturday evening.
“Our moves are not targeted against people and we are acting for their sake,” the protesters emphasized in a statement.
The You Stink campaign said the entrances that will be blocked are the Khalde triangle, Dora near CIT, and the Hazmieh-Beirut highway near the City Center mall.
Noting that the roads will be blocked from 6:30 till 10:00 am, the campaign urged citizens to stay home and “sacrifice a few hours of education or work” for the sake of their “health and future.”
Meanwhile, the We Want Accountability and For The Republic campaigns and other smaller groups announced that they will not take part in the road-blocking protests, citing “lack of coordination” and keenness on “the interests of citizens.”
Earlier in the day, environmentalist campaigners held a symbolic sit-in at the entrance to the controversial Naameh landfill, whose closure in July was behind the country’s unprecedented garbage crisis.
“The landfill was closed in July 2015 and it will not be reopened,” said the activists.
Threatening to escalate measures, the protesters said: “We will block the road at the entrance and will prevent dump trucks from entering.”
They called on related authorities “not to drag us to escalate measures.”
The closure of the Naameh landfill in July resulted in the pile up of garbage on the streets throughout the country, sparking environmental and health warnings over the prolongation of the problem.
Later on Sunday, a popular sit-in was held in the Choueifat region to protest the government’s decision to set up a garbage landfill in the Costa Brava area.
“The town refuses the utilization of any land lot or shore within its geographic boundaries for the purpose of land-filling garbage,” the protesters stressed.
The Khalde-Ouzai highway was later blocked with burning tires in protest at the same government decision.
The cabinet on Saturday decided to establish two landfills and to reactivate Naameh temporarily as part of a four-year plan to resolve the country’s waste problem despite the rejection of civil society activists who called for a general strike.
Information Minister Ramzi Jreij said two landfills – in the Bourj Hammoud and Costa Brava areas – would be established, and the Naameh landfill would reopen for two months to receive waste that has accumulated in makeshift dumps.
A landfill’s location in the Shouf and Aley areas will be determined later following consultations with the local municipalities, said Jreij in his press briefing.
Y.R./D.A.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/204427-anti-trash-activists-rally-in-naameh-choueifat-vow-to-block-beirut-entrances-monday-morning
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New rallies in Lebanon over months-old rubbish crisis – Al Jazeera
Thousands call for government to resign over failure to solve crisis triggered by closure of main landfill last summer.
Venetia Rainey | 12 Mar 2016 19:17 GMT | Lebanon, Politics, Environment, Middle East
Beirut, Lebanon – Thousands of people have rallied in Beirut to demand the government’s resignation over its failure to handle an eight-month rubbish crisis, as ministers put forward a temporary solution to the problem by opening three landfills.
More than 2,000 people marched on Saturday from east of Beirut’s busy Sassine Square junction to the Downtown area, shutting down roads and prompting residents along the route to come to their balconies and cheer.
READ MORE: How Lebanon’s rubbish spurred a budding revolution
Riot police watched on as the rally came to a stop in Riad al-Solh Square, where protest organisers called for a general strike to be held on Monday.
“If they want to attack us, we are not going anywhere,” said Asaad Thebian, co-founder of the You Stink group, a driving force behind the protests.
“Camps have been erected at the [Riad al-Solh] Square, and we call on families to come down here.”
Scrambling for answers
A stone’s throw away, ministers held a day-long session to try to find a solution to the crisis, which began last summer when an overflowing landfill in the village of Naameh was closed.
That closure led rubbish collectors to pile mountains of untreated waste underneath bridges, by rivers and on the side of roads.
Large protests last summer over the issue failed to affect any change and eventually fizzled out. Saturday’s rally was the first major demonstration since then.
After eight hours of discussions, the cabinet declared that they would open temporary landfills just outside Beirut in Bourj Hammoud and Costa Brava, as well as reopen the controversial site in Naameh.
‘Dysfunction and corruption’
Protesters rejected the proposal, arguing that the country needs municipal-led recycling schemes, instead of more landfills.
“This is 2016, we need a real solution, certainly we can find a better solution than this,” argued Jules Bakhos, a 24-year-old medicine student attending the protests in a centurion costume.
“This is not a normal situation any more. Things should change … we can’t live like this any more.”
For Lara Sabah, a 42-year-old filmmaker who was at the demonstration with her children, aged 10 and three, the outlook is grim.
“We don’t really feel optimistic,” she said with a sigh. “But we have to try, we have to do it. We know there are solutions that are put aside because they [politicians] can’t agree on who gets what, and we want to change that, simply.”
READ MORE: Public anger grows as Beirut’s trash crisis persists
References to corruption, incompetence and nepotism could be seen on posters and heard in speeches throughout the afternoon, echoing widespread discontent with politicians’ failure to provide basic state services.
Anger was also directed at the government that has extended its own mandate twice and prevented a president from being elected for nearly two years, in contravention with the law.
“The state of the institutions in general has reached a level of dysfunction and corruption that I think its really unprecedented in the country and the garbage crisis has just revealed this,” said Sahar Atrache, senior Lebanon analyst for the International Crisis Group.
“We’ve never had a perfect governance system anyway, but I think that what Lebanon is witnessing now is something new.”
Question marks remain, however, over the movement’s ability to affect change.
“The political class is resilient,” Atrache added. “I don’t see that the protests have the capacity to come up with a real alternative to them.”
Follow Venetia Rainey on Twitter: @venetiarainey
Source: Al Jazeera
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/fresh-rallies-lebanon-months-rubbish-crisis-160312181044219.html
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Amid river of trash, activists again call for protests – NOW
Myra Abdallah
Published: 7/03/2016 01:06 PM | Updated: 9/03/2016 01:33 PM
Describing it as a last warning, activists whom NOW spoke to have high hopes regarding the outcome of the planned protest and are planning escalatory measures
Roughly seven months after the trash crisis first began in Lebanon, rivers of garbage bags are still visible across the country. Trash bags, filthy smells, flies and mosquitoes, along with the resulting diseases and viruses, are Lebanon’s current scenery. Several instanes of rainfall and the invasion of flies and mosquitos today are still raising fears of an epidemic. Many cases that point to a possible outbreak of diseases and viruses were reported, yet, there is still no resolution in sight. It has become clear that the garbage crisis in Lebanon is not about finding environmentally friendly solutions to dispose of the waste, but rather finding political solutions able to obtain the consent of all political parties. Recent reports have demonstrated a dangerous increase in the level of water and soil pollution in the country. Footage filmed by a drone over Lebanon recently posted by You Stink activists dramatically illustrates the enormous amount of trash that is still widespread on Lebanon’s streets.
The video, entitled “Rise above Lebanon’s political garbage”, was posted in conjunction with calls for a new protest by Lebanon’s civil society. After a relatively stagnate couple of months, the You Stink activists have decided to take to the streets again and give the Lebanese government a “last warning” to find a solution. “After seven months, we are giving the Lebanese government a last warning to find a solution for the garbage crisis, free of theft and corruption, with a final plan based on sorting and recycling trash,” says the invitation message to the protest on Saturday, March 12, that was posted to the Facebook event page created by You Stink organizers.
“Saturday’s march comes after the false solutions that the government proposed,” said activist and director Lucien Bou Rjeily. “The government repeatedly tried to deceive people into thinking that it was coming up with real solutions. In fact, the government was removing the garbage from the streets and throwing it into rivers and valleys.” This course of action was the quickest and most direct solution to remove the garbage that was blocking Beirut and Mount Lebanon’s streets and dump it where it did not directly affect people’s lives in the short term. However, this harmed Lebanon’s environment on a larger scale and contributed to the rise in the level of pollution in the country. According to a report previously published by NOW, experts whom NOW spoke to confirmed that contaminated garbage produces a leachate that will seep into the groundwater and pollute it. In addition, burning the garbage was a solution adopted by several municipalities, which also contributed to raising the level of pollution in the air.
According to Chris Dersarkissian, head of the Domestic Waste Management Plan at Arc-en-ciel, during the winter season in Lebanon, the environment was more at risk. “People can feel the effect of the garbage crisis during the summer more than the winter because of the smell,” he told NOW. “The fermentation of garbage caused by summer heat creates a very bad smell and an outbreak of mosquitoes. However, during the winter, the leachate produced by garbage can pollute the groundwater. This is more dangerous.”
Bou Rjeily told NOW that the government and some municipalities are acting very indifferent towards the environment and the lives of Lebanese citizens. “For example, when we were filming the video, we arrived at a place where we couldn’t see garbage at all, but we knew that there was a dump nearby because the smell was horrible. When we tried to find out where the dump was, we discovered that it was under the street. They threw garbage bags [there] and then hid them with soil and rocks. They buried the garbage under the street, disregarding its effects on the environment and the people living in the area,” he told NOW.
For the past couple of months, the actions of civil movements calling for a solution for the garbage crisis were relatively tame compared to the initial outcry at the onset of the crisis. According to You Stink organizer Aly Sleem, the meetings never stopped, but the people needed a break. They also wanted to give the time requested by the government to develop and implement a solution. “We were observing the work of the government because we were almost certain that this political structure would not be able to find an environmentally friendly and permanent solution to the garbage crisis,” he said. “We are expecting a lot of people to participate in Saturday’s protest. We are giving a final notice to the government and we need people to support us.”
During previous protests, a number of participants acted violently as a way of expressing their dissatisfaction towards the government. Describing it as a last warning, activists whom NOW spoke to have high hopes regarding the outcome of the planned protest and are planning escalatory measure. “It will always be a non-violent protest and we will work hard to keep it this way,” said Sleem. “The coming steps may be calling again for the resignation of the government for example, or blocking roads. We will try to pressure the political powers in a non-violent way that also pushes Lebanese citizens to be part of it.”
“The groundwater is already polluted. If the government does not find a proximate solution, we will reach a point when [Beirut] will become a city we can’t live in,” said Dersarkissian.
“We will try hard to succeed. Lebanon is our home. We will not allow anyone to destroy our home without trying to defend it,” said Bou Rjeily.
Myra Abdallah tweets @myraabdallah
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/reportsfeatures/566707-surrounded-by-rivers-of-trash-activists-again-call-for-protests