Kataeb Expects ‘Positive Solutions’ in Waste Crisis as Shehayyeb Urges Cooperation
Resigned Economy Minister Alain Hakim of the Kataeb Party has announced that “positive solutions” are expected to surface in the coming days regarding the recurrent waste management and collection crisis.
The expected positive developments involve removing the accumulating garbage from the streets, setting a deadline for waste treatment and sorting, and the municipal implementation of waste management decentralization, Hakim told OTV.
“The only solution is to set up sorting and preliminary treatment plants at the level of municipalities or municipal unions,” he said.
And in response to a question, the minister said “we all want to achieve results, not to obstruct,” noting that “cooperation between all parties, especially between Kataeb and the Free Patriotic Movement, will inevitably lead to positive developments.”
In remarks to al-Liwaa newspaper published Saturday, Hakim had revealed that Kataeb and the FPM are discussing a solution based on “setting a transitional period ranging from eight months to one year; creating an environmental-health supervision committee tasked with overseeing the storage of waste in the specified locations; devising a plan based on decentralization and municipalities; granting the municipalities their pending funds and technical assistance; and dismantling the old ‘garbage mountain’ in Bourj Hammoud.”
MP Alain Aoun of the FPM meanwhile told al-Joumhouria newspaper that “all contacts are focusing on developing the formula that was reached by the Finance and Budget Parliamentary Committee, which involves the reopening of the Bourj Hammoud landfill with strict supervision of the sorting process.”
“Simultaneously, efforts would be exerted to ensure the readiness of municipalities to treat waste in their areas through the creation of treatment plants or incinerators within a deadline not exceeding one year,” Aoun added, noting that the civil society would take part in the supervision of the operations.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb, who is in charge of implementing the government’s emergency waste management plan, hoped that an agreement will be reached to remove the accumulating garbage from the streets of Metn, Keserwan and some parts of Beirut during a meeting that will be held Tuesday at the Interior Ministry.
“There is no choice but to implement the transitional waste management plan in order to move to the permanent plan,” he said, in remarks to al-Liwaa newspaper.
He also noted that he is “open to all remarks aimed at improving and supporting the solution, because it is unacceptable to leave garbage on the streets and create environmental and health hazards.”
“We have not at all rejected dialogue with the relevant parties and those who have another solution let them present it,” Shehayyeb added, rejecting “the principle of rejection for the sake of rejection.”
“The objections must be environmental or else let those opposing shoulder the responsibility of leaving garbage on the streets,” he said.
“The committee is ready to resolve obstacles and avoid shortcomings in order to back up the plan and partnership is necessary to reach a solution because the problem is affecting everyone in the country, not only one group,” Shehayyeb added, urging all parties not to “politicize the file” and to be “realistic.”
Protesters from the Kataeb Party and several environmentalist and civil society groups have been staging a sit-in outside the Bourj Hammoud site for several weeks and on August 11 students from the Kataeb Party managed to force the suspension of works aimed at setting up a new seaside landfill.
The protesters and activists have accused authorities of seeking to “land-fill the sea” with unsorted and unrecycled garbage in a manner that poses environmental and health risks and violates the Convention for Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution.
The Bourj Hammoud Municipality has also prevented garbage trucks from accessing a temporary storage site in the area, accusing the government of failing to respect the agreement that preceded the emergency plan.
The closure of the temporary storage site has prompted the Sukleen waste management firm to suspend garbage collection in several areas in Mount Lebanon and Beirut, which has resulted in a new pileup of trash on the streets.
The country’s unprecedented waste management crisis erupted in July last year when the country’s central landfill in Naameh was closed amid the government’s failure to find alternatives.
The crisis saw streets, forests and riverbeds overflowing with trash for several months and triggered unprecedented street protests against the entire political class that sometimes turned violent.
Experts have long urged the government to devise a comprehensive waste management solution that would include more recycling and composting to reduce the amount of trash going into landfills.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/215793-kataeb-expects-positive-solutions-in-waste-crisis-as-shehayyeb-urges-cooperation
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Garbage Crisis Returns to Parts of Lebanon
A garbage crisis has returned to Lebanon with piles of trash piling up in regions north of Beirut months after the government headed off a political crisis over uncollected waste.
The local council in the suburb of Bourj Hammoud, where a temporary dump is located, have for the past week denied access to garbage trucks on the grounds that the authorities had failed to honour a commitment to open a waste-treatment plant.
In March, after an eight-month crisis which led to mass street protests, the government approved a “temporary plan” to open two new landfills, one in Bourj Hammoud to the north and another south of the capital.
But recycling plans have failed to take shape.
A landfill in Naameh, 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Beirut, opened in 1997 and was meant to be a temporary dump but an alternative site was never found.
For 20 years, the waste generated in Beirut and Mount Lebanon — the country’s most populous areas — was dumped in Naameh.
The verdant valley swelled into a trash mountain of more than 15 million tonnes.
Furious residents forced the closure of the site in July 2015, saying it was leading to high cancer rates, skin diseases and breathing problems.
Uncollected rubbish began piling up around Beirut and its suburbs, emitting a horrible stench that sparked protests in downtown Beirut demanding a long-term solution.
After months of political wrangling, Lebanon’s cabinet announced a four-year plan to end the waste crisis — and its first step was reopening Naameh for two months.
Source
Agence France Presse
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/215744-garbage-crisis-returns-to-parts-of-lebanon
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Gemayel, Bou Saab Inspect Bourj Hammoud Landfill, Urge Amendment of Waste Plan
Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel and Education Minister Elias Bou Saab of the Free Patriotic Movement on Thursday inspected the controversial garbage landfill in Bourj Hammoud and called on the government to amend its emergency waste management plan.
“What I saw today was expected and it confirms that Kataeb’s protests are rightful, seeing as the government’s so-called plan is being implemented chaotically and without any accountability or inspection,” Bou Saab told reporters at the site.
“I met with Sheikh Sami before coming here and we’re discussing possible solutions that require amending the government’s plan so that we can start the decentralization process. There is no confidence in the current implementation method and the only solution is administrative decentralization,” the minister added.
“There are ideas that might lead to a result if the government meets us halfway. We would then go through a brief transitional period that would lead us to the sought result and this would resolve a small crisis that is being blown out of proportion by the politicians who have their own motives,” Bou Saab went on to say.
Gemayel for his part stressed that it is necessary to “put an end to the disaster through amending the plan,” warning that “the region is suffering a major health and environmental catastrophe.”
He also urged officials to “liberate the Metn area from the nightmare instead of launching theories and putting us under pressure.”
“Let them revise the plan, find health- and environmental-friendly solutions, and implement decentralization,” Gemayel added.
Protesters from the Kataeb Party and several environmentalist and civil society groups have been staging a sit-in outside the Bourj Hammoud site for several weeks and on August 11 students from the Kataeb Party managed to force the suspension of works aimed at setting up a new seaside landfill.
The protesters and activists have accused authorities of seeking to “land-fill the sea” with unsorted and unrecycled garbage in a manner that poses environmental and health risks and violates the Convention for Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution.
The Bourj Hammoud Municipality has also prevented garbage trucks from accessing a temporary storage site in the area, accusing the government of failing to respect the agreement that preceded the emergency plan.
The closure of the temporary storage site has prompted the Sukleen waste management firm to suspend garbage collection in several areas in Mount Lebanon and Beirut, which has resulted in a new pileup of trash on the streets.
The country’s unprecedented waste management crisis erupted in July last year when the country’s central landfill in Naameh was closed amid the government’s failure to find alternatives.
The crisis saw streets, forests and riverbeds overflowing with trash for several months and triggered unprecedented street protests against the entire political class that sometimes turned violent.
Experts have long urged the government to devise a comprehensive waste management solution that would include more recycling and composting to reduce the amount of trash going into landfills.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/215738-gemayel-bou-saab-inspect-bourj-hammoud-landfill-urge-amendment-of-waste-plan
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Parliamentary Committee Says Commission to be Formed to Prepare for Waste Management ‘Decentralization’
A “coordination and supervision commission” will be tasked with helping authorities and municipalities prepare for the decentralization of the waste management process, the Finance and Budget Parliamentary Committee said on Wednesday.
“We have agreed to form a coordination and supervision commission to pave the way for decentralization,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan said after the parliamentary committee’s meeting, which was held in the presence of a number of municipal chiefs from the Metn and Keserwan areas.
“We agreed that there would be a transitional period that does not exceed one year due to the municipalities’ unreadiness to immediately start treating waste under a decentralized plan,” Kanaan added.
“If decentralization is the solution, it is required to provide the necessary assets, and the final plan should begin today through the formation of a coordination and supervision commission that would work with authorities and municipalities on ways to develop the decentralization process,” the lawmaker explained.
As for the piles of garbage that have started accumulating on the streets, Kanaan said they would be removed “once we agree on the implementation framework.”
“The dispute was over the approach towards the seafront site and there are ideas that are being proposed to reach a decision,” Kanaan added, noting that “there will be follow-up with the relevant parties in the coming hours in a bid to find a solution.”
“There is no possibility to use the (Bourj Hammoud) storage site at the moment and we want to reconcile between the concerns of the Tashnag Party and the developments that we might face on the ground,” the MP said, noting that “it is possible to seek cooperation with private firms to assist the Karantina plant” in the waste sorting process.
As for the walkout of Tashnag’s representative from the meeting, Kanaan reassured that “what happened with the Tashnag Party can be discussed and no one will be excluded from the solution.”
“All parties must do a step forward so that we can overcome the current situation,” the MP added.
During the meeting, the municipal unions agreed unanimously that they still need one year before being capable of playing a role in waste management, according to LBCI television.
MP Hagop Pakradonian of the Tashnag Party left the meeting before it ended, rejecting in a statement the establishment of a landfill or a storage location in Bourj Hammoud.
“Let each region carry its own burden of trash. When the government decision is implemented in details, then we would shoulder our own responsibility,” said Pakradonian.
Before the meeting, Jounieh municipal chief Juan Hbeish said upon his arrival at the parliament: “We are capable of tolerating the burden.”
For his part, Pakradonian stated that the “Bourj Hammoud landfill will not open unless we receive guarantees on a complete implementation of the government plan,” as he assured that his party’s stance is not coordinated with the Kataeb Party.
“Either everyone agrees to the government’s plan or no solutions will be reached – neither today nor next week,” he added.
Elias Bou Saab, the Education Minister, said: “The trash crisis will only be solved through a decentralization plan.”
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/215659-parliamentary-committee-says-commission-to-be-formed-to-prepare-for-waste-management-decentralization
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Kataeb Says Trash Crisis Exposes ‘Mafia Controlling Country’, Urges Sorting Plants
The Kataeb Party said Monday that the renewed waste collection crisis “exposes anew the corruption mafia that is controlling the country,” calling for the creation of waste sorting and treatment plants and the temporary storage of the accumulating garbage in non-residential areas.
“The crime of leaving garbage in the streets exposes anew the corruption mafia that is controlling the country, which is asking citizens to choose between fast death and slow death,” the party’s political bureau said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.
“In light of the outcome of the Finance Parliamentary Committee meeting, in which the conferees confirmed that only less than 10% of waste is being sorted and around 90% is being land-filled, Kataeb has invited the relevant municipalities and municipal unions to a meeting that will be held on Wednesday to explore their viewpoints and proposed solutions,” it added.
“The Kataeb Party reiterates that the appropriate solution to this crisis would to immediately embark on setting up waste sorting and management plants in every district, a process that requires six months to be finalized,” the party suggested.
“Meanwhile, the government must find a temporary site for storing the the garbage away from the residential areas pending the beginning of the decentralized waste management process,” it said.
A deal to transport garbage from the streets of Metn, Keserwan and parts of the capital Beirut went to a halt recently due to the closure of the Bourj Hammoud storage location by the municipality.
Early in August, Kataeb Party students forced the suspension of works aimed at setting up a landfill at the site, demanding a halt to what they called “the project of land-filling the sea with garbage on Metn’s coast.” They have been staging a sit-in outside the site for several weeks now.
Lebanon’s unprecedented trash management crisis erupted in July 2015 after the closure of the central Naameh landfill which was receiving the waste of Beirut and Mount Lebanon.
The months-long crisis, which sparked protests against the entire political class, saw streets, forests and riverbanks overflowing with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting and burning garbage.
The cabinet eventually 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 despite the rejection of many residents and civil society activists.
A landfill’s location in the Chouf and Aley areas would be determined later following consultations with the local municipalities, the cabinet said at the time.
Environmentalists and civil society activists have long called for an eco-friendly solution to the garbage crisis that involves more recycling and composting to reduce the amount of trash going into landfills as well as a bigger role for municipalities.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/215553-kataeb-says-trash-crisis-exposes-mafia-controlling-country-urges-sorting-plants
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Report: Trash Plan Setback in Metn and Keserwan Sees a Solution
A plan to collect the trash that has been accumulating on the streets in the northern districts of Metn and Keserewan lately will be put into implementation either today or on Tuesday, An Nahar daily reported on Monday.
The trash management plan, which saw a setback after protesters closed a location in the area of Bourj Hammoud used to store the waste, will resume and the trash will be collected in relatively remote areas, added the daily.
The plan will be put into implementation pending an expected solution that will see the garbage transferred to the landfill of Bourj Hammoud with a clear commitment from the government to implement an integrated environmental plan for sorting, processing and land-filling, it added.
A deal to transport garbage from the streets of Metn, Keserwan and parts of the capital Beirut went to a halt recently due to the closure of the Bourj Hammoud storage location.
Trash started accumulating once again on the streets of Metn, Keserwan and a small section of Beirut that are included in the trash deal to transport garbage to a temporary site in Bourj Hammoud.
Early in August, Kataeb party students forced the work to a halt at the landfill and demanded the halt to what they alleged “the project of land-filling the sea with garbage on Metn’s coast.”
Lebanon’s unprecedented trash management crisis erupted in July 2015 after the closure of the central Naameh landfill which was receiving the waste of Beirut and Mount Lebanon.
The months-long crisis, which sparked protests against the entire political class, saw streets, forests and riverbanks overflowing with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting and burning garbage.
The cabinet eventually 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 despite the rejection of many residents and civil society activists.
A landfill’s location in the Chouf and Aley areas would be determined later following consultations with the local municipalities, the cabinet said at the time.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/215520-report-trash-plan-setback-in-metn-and-keserwan-sees-a-solution