How long will this scandal persist in the ministry of environment? How long will this devastating dispute between the Ministers remain (Since Minister Mohammad Rahhal in 2009-2010 and until now) and the Director-general Berj Hatajian? This dispute which resulted in unproductive, and even destructive relations within the Ministry and between the manager and the staff together? The dispute, which was translated into a war in many sensitive files, and led to disasters at the national level? How long will the “malice policy”, the war of files, lack of respect for the authority, the violation of everything in order to prove, inveterate, prohibit, and distort some words, remain?
There are more than fifty referrals and complaints (mostly behavioral) from the Minister to the Director, to the inspection authority, around disputes and bad relationships between the staff and the minister. Many of the director’s complaints against the staff, are exaggerated mistakes, and paybacks due to disloyalty, in addition to the staff’s confusion between being loyal to the minister or the director, revenges, leaking information between the parties, and around them, intervening politicians and parties, abuse of power, exploitation of the files in the ministry to gain gratification, or delaying them for disappointment or for other reasons, deliberately blocking some of the files, accelerating other files to the extent of rushing, fighting over files, external grants, employment, and travel … etc., then some come asking: Why did the Ministry of environment fail in addressing the most basic files and the most complex of them?!
Did you know that the explosion of a disaster and the accumulation of wastes in the streets would not have occurred in the tragic way they did if it weren’t for this disagreement? When the current Minister of Environment Mohamed al-Mashnouq tried to pre-empt the crisis and the closing date of the Naameh landfill, by proposing treating the Bourj Hammoud landfill and using the land to create a sorting, composting, and treatment plant, and the negotiations began with the concerned authorities in the Metn region, including deputies and parties from Metn and Tashnaq Party, the Director-General made effort to thwart this plan by convincing all of the concerned parties that it is an inappropriate plan. He also talked about its severely negative impacts. According to the Minister of environment and his advisors, the Director-general has also contributed, in drafting a rejection letter which was signed by Metn members of Parliament.
This refusal led the ministry to neglect the fateful tenders, which in turn left the choice of the treatment locations to the investors. It also resulted in the failure of these tenders, the closure of the Naameh landfill, in addition to keeping the wastes in the streets, and then returning to the Bourj Hammoud landfill, with tougher surroundings, and worse environmental conditions.
Then we hear that the Director-General participated last week in a hearing session about the Dhour Choueir incinerator, to present the company that is studying the environmental impact of the incinerator, without being Commissioned by the minister, which led al-Mashnouq to hint about cancelling the results of the meeting, which was devoted to Dhour Shweir residents, knowing that the meeting revealed a huge rejection among the residents, regarding the incinerator.
Does this conflict within the ministry change the ministry’s proper and confirmative stand on using small waste incinerators in villages and towns, just as a malice against the Director-General’s position?! And if were not to think of it that way, we do not believe that the upright position of the Ministry of Environment was supposed to stopover at the environmental impact study for each incinerator (just as it did for each dam).
The Ministry of Environment’s basic task is to develop an integrated environmental strategy, in order to evaluate the projects and policies across all sectors, and to adopt the strategic environmental assessment for projects before the performing the Environmental Impact Assessment for every small project. Meaning, if the ministry had an integrated environmental waste management strategy, it would not have accepted in the first place to search or to allow the importation of small incinerators for many reasons, at their foremost is the environmental impact of each incinerator. This also includes the issue of transferring technology from one country to another, and the different standards between the country of origin and the importing country, in addition to many other criteria that we can discuss later on.
What is important right now is the need to put an end to this chaos within the Ministry of the Environment, and to this internal destructive conflict, which the Prime Minister (in addition to the mentioned conflicting parties) bears responsibility for. The Prime minister knows about it, but does initiate to resolve it since so long. The political parties and blocs represented in the government, however, have always been shunning this ministry, since it is related to wastes, and it is not related to “greasy” sovereignty or services-related issues!
