BEIRUT: Lebanese municipalities lack a waste management strategy to organize trash in their districts, prompting some to collect and dump their waste in other regions, Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk said Saturday.

“Some municipalities collect their waste and throw them in other districts randomly and I have proof of that,” Machnouk told a local television station.

“Municipalities are incapable of handling their waste on their own from a technical point of view.”

He said the lack of a waste management plan for each municipalities had resulted in the emergence of 760 illegal dumps across the country.

The issue of waste management surfaced in the country after residents of Naameh pressed the government to shut down a main landfill in their area, arguing that the dump had become an environmental hazard.

The government set April 2015 as the date for the closure of the landfill but has yet to find a replacement. The Naameh landfill was used by Sukleen to dispose of waste collected in Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

Machnouk, who has said that a technical extension is possible for the Naameh landfill, said that the government should formulate a new plan to manage waste.
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