MP Moukhaiber to LBCI: Residents Metn fear that temporary solution for waste crisis would become permanent

MP Ghassan Moukhaiber said on Thursday that residents of the Metn region fear that the temporary solution for the waste crisis ​would become permanent.

Moukhaiber’s comments were made during an interview with Nharkom Said TV show whereby he noted that the discussions during​ Wednesday's Parliament’s Finance and Budget Committee session, tackled the establishment of sanitary landfills ​and the storage of the garabage.

“However, we did not agree on any particular solution, and the ultimate solution would be the improvement of the environmental conditions of Bourj Hammoud sanitary landfill,” he added.

Sources told LBCI on Wednesday that all municipalities unanimously agreed during Parliament’s Finance and Budget Committee session 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.

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.

Tshnag Party leader MP Hagop Pakradounian withdrew from 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.

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.