“I submitted a list of possible locations for dump sites to the heads of municipality unions today,” Machnouk said in a joint news conference with Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel after meeting with municipality unions. The meeting aimed to help Beirut and Mount Lebanon officials agree on where to create landfills to bury the tens of thousands of kilos of garbage that has been left uncollected since the permanent closure of the Naameh dump one week ago. He emphasized that the dump sites would be temporary until new companies are contracted to create “healthy landfills.” The garbage will then be moved from the temporary sites to the permanent ones, Machnouk said. “We will not be landfilling waste, but rather placing them in these locations until a solution is found for them,” Machnouk said. “We hope that there will be full cooperation when the locations of the chosen dump sites are announced.” Asked whether the government would refer to law enforcement if some villages or towns refuse to host any dumps, Machnouk said: “We won’t use force against anyone, and instead rely on cooperation from citizens and municipalities.” The minister explained that after the deadline for the call for tenders ends on Aug. 5, new companies would be selected for the waste management sector, and these would then be tasked with preparing new landfills that respect environmental standards. Large piles of garbage have been accumulating on Beirut’s streets since Sukleen halted its activities Sunday with some residents resorting to burning the trash. The company says it has nowhere to take the garbage as the Lebanese government failed to find new landfills after the 17-year-old Naameh dump was shut on July 17. Gemayel, in turn, attacked Cabinet ministers for failing to address the matter at their last meeting Thursday. “Me and the minister are disappointed that we (Kataeb ministers) were not allowed at the Cabinet session yesterday to bring up this matter or make a decision,” he said. “Some people think that only discussing the decision-making mechanism and the other things that they want to raise is important, while this matter is not,” he added, in reference to Free Patriotic Movement ministers. “What happened yesterday is unacceptable,” he said, adding that the Cabinet left Machnouk to deal with the crisis alone. In Beirut, Mayor Bilal Hamad stuck to his proposal that Sukleen should resume its work but without engaging in any landfilling. In a phone call with The Daily Star earlier Friday, he explained that his municipality had contracted a company that was looking for the most suitable location to dump waste, expressing optimism that “all obstacles would be dismantled today.” Meanwhile, the municipality of Furn al-Shubbak, located just outside Beirut, took matters into its own hands Friday. It began collecting trash from the streets and buried it in a plot of land under a bridge, mimicking a similar action taken by the Sin al-Fil Municipality on Thursday. At Friday’s news conference, Gemayel addressed private companies interested in applying for Beirut’s call for tenders, which received no applications, assuring them that “the state will find the proper locations for landfills if you fail to do so.” The Daily Star
