REPORT: Garbage to remain in the streets as officials continue to hold fruitless meetings

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2016-08-31 | 05:41
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REPORT: Garbage to remain in the streets as officials continue to hold fruitless meetings
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3min
REPORT: Garbage to remain in the streets as officials continue to hold fruitless meetings

Sources told LBCI on Wednesday that all municipalities unanimously agreed during Parliament’s Finance and Budget Committee session, which was held to discuss the waste crisis, that “they are not ready and need one year before carrying out any role to solve the waste crisis.”

 
 

Following the meeting, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, who heads the committee, stressed that an agreement was reached on the need to remove trash from the streets.

 

“Municipalities made it clear that they are not ready to manage their waste in their districts at the time being,” Kanaan said.

 

He also ​pointed out that the decentralization of the waste management sector is the ultimate solution​, adding that a coordination and supervision panel will be formed to follow up on ​this final plan ​in coordination with the authorities.

 

“We will follow up on the issue with relevant officials in the upcoming hours to implement what we agreed on and put in place the operational frameworks," the lawmaker added.

 

MP Hagop Pakradounian withdrew form the session, stressing that the Tashnag Party's mission was to facilitate the government's task when Prime Minister Tammam Salam had warned of resigning over the crisis, however the party's first condition was that the old mountain of trash be removed.

 

Prior to the meeting, Tshnag Party leader MP Pakradounian asserted that the Bourj Hammoud landfill will only open when guarantees are received that the government’s plan will be implemented.

 
For his part, Minister of Education Elias Bou Saab said that the solution for the waste crisis relies in the administrative decentralization, calling for moving forward in this regard.
 
Meanwhile, the Federation of Keserwan Municipalities head Joan Hobeiche told LBCI that there are “several solutions for the waste crisis, such as the adoption of the administrative decentralization.”
 
“We also have landfills in Keserwan and a waste sorting plant,” he added before partaking in the session.
 
A deal to transport garbage from the streets of Metn, Keserwan and parts of Beirut was recently halted due to the closure of the Bourj Hammoud landfill by the municipality.
 
Lebanon's unprecedented waste management crisis erupted in July 2015 after the closure of the Naameh landfill which was receiving the garbage of Beirut and Mount Lebanon.
 
The months-long crisis, which stirred protests against the entire government, saw streets, forests and riverbanks full of waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting and burning garbage.
 
The cabinet ultimately decided to establish two landfills in Costa Brava and Bourj Hammoud and to reopen the Naameh landfill for two months as part of a four-year plan despite the rejection of the residents and civil society activists.
 
 
For more details, watch the full report in the video above

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Waste

Bour Hammoud

Lebanon

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