Until when will the Ministry of Environment’s role in managing the solid wastes file continue?
If the ministry has failed in finding an alternative for the emergency plan which was put in 1997, and it did not preempt the closure date of Naameh landfill with alternative strategies and plans, and it did not succeed in benefiting from the recurring deadlines for the closing date…
Until we found ourselves in a crisis, and Beirut and Mount Lebanon’s garbage remained on the streets… This does not mean that the ministry bears responsibility alone, neither does it justify snatching the file from it, or giving it to the “CDR” or to a committee headed by the Ministry of Agriculture, or another committee headed by the Interior Minister (It did not hold any meetings yet), neither does this justify that the waste file becomes managed by every municipality. A mistake is not corrected by more mistakes, and bad management is not repaired by more chaos.
Returning to the Ministry of Environment does not mean returning to its non-strategic plans, it’s a return to the legal and logical origins. This ministry is supposed to propose integrated strategies, which take into consideration not only the topic of managing all kinds of wastes, but also this topic’s relation to biodiversity management, water management, quarries, crushers and all sectors’ management, especially the economic, commercial and industrial sectors… etc.
Until when will this blatant contradiction remain in the government’s decisions regarding the waste file? How long will this confusion remain? How long will this deterioration remain, from a state of emergency to other long-standing, more harmful, and barely planned state of emergency, that is to implemented by two ordinary contractors, who are not specialized in waste management!?
It was recently revealed that those who prepared the book of conditions for waste treatment, do not have sufficient expertise in this sector. How will they reach landfilling 60% of wastes, as it is required, if the size of the sorted materials does not exceed 10 percent, and if expanding the sorting and fermentation plants is done yet, neither was there a plan to set up new plants in the landfilling area in Bourj Hammoud!? If it is now required to expand the fermentation plant to accommodate 750 tons instead of 300 tons per day within seven months, including an Environmental Impact Study, how was the time required for the study determined, and who ensures that it is possible to get it done, and that the outcome of the study on expanding will be positive?
There is a concern that the fermentation process will not succeed, neither will it be improved (without source sorting), so the organic materials and fermented materials are landfilled as well! Was the waste volume studied, and which municipalities remained within this plan to know the size of the machinery, equipment, along with the sorting and treatment lines required?
Where are the transportation and quality conditions (compressed or as they are), which affect the cost, as well as the calculation of distances, in addition to the collection and treatment of leachate?!
What does this futile, inconsistent government want? On what basis are the biddings taking place? What will happen to “Costa Brava” and Borj Hammoud projects if the Municipality of Beirut withdrew (as it is declared and publicly known). What will happen if the Metn Municipalities Union withdrew (as MP Murr and his daughter Myrna plan), and if the Iqleem municipalities withdrew, and if Kesserwan municipalities withdrew as well (as the former President of the Industrialists Association Neemat Efram plans), in addition to the Minister of Education and former Minister of Tourism’s plans to use small and dangerous incinerators, in addition to the Ministry of Administrative development’s plans …!? What are the options taken by each municipality or every Union of Municipalities, and on what basis will these options be evaluated, and within which standards and which comprehensive national strategy (it was supposed to be set by the Ministry of Environment)? How will the tenders of cleaning, collecting, and treatment, be separated from the reclamation and landfilling tenders …?
Doesn’t this require a profound revision before moving on to new crises and disasters? Shouldn’t everything be restored to its correct place, and shouldn’t duties, responsibilities, and authorities be redefined?
