“Three protesters were wounded when security forces tried to forcibly reopen the Jiyyeh highway,” Barja Mayor Nashaat Hamiyehsaid. Hamiyeh has thrown his weight behind the protesters, who closed the vital highway in both directions Sunday to prevent apparent government plans to move trash piled on the streets of Beirut to the Iqlim al-Kharoub region south of the capital. “We won’t back down and the road will remain closed,” he vowed, as hundreds of protesters formed a human shield to protect their villages arguing that existing landfills were already suffering from overcapacity. Police had diverted traffic to the old seaside road in an attempt to bypass the protests. The diversion caused huge traffic jams in both directions Monday. Motorists spent nearly four hours on the road Sunday due to the closure. Sukleen, the company in charge of collecting trash from Beirut and Mount Lebanon, stopped working after the closure of the controversial Naameh landfill on July 17. Mountains of garbage have piled up in and around Beirut since then, with politicians unable to find another site to dump the trash. The Daily Star
