Angry residents of Amchit, north of Beirut expressed anger Thursday as smoke and toxic fumes continued to billow from the site of the waste landfill located in the nearby town of Hbaline.
The town’s residents said that this is not the first time poisonous gases and smoke emanated from the landfill, stressing that “they have had enough."
In this context, the residents explained that the landfill was originally designed only for household waste, “but the plan was violated and the landfill was receiving all kinds of waste material.”
“We will no longer accept waste from outside the region of Jbeil to be dumped in Hbaline,” they said.
For his part, the Mayor of Amchit Antoine Issa said that police are preventing trucks from offloading waste in any landfill that has a binding contract with a certain company, adding that work must be done in accordance with a set of terms and conditions not to be violated.
For his part, MP Simon Abi Ramia reiterated the need to prohibit the entry and subsequent offloading of waste from outside Jbeil at the Hbaline landfill, stressing the need to respect environmental rules.
On Wednesday, Civil Defense units managed to extinguish the fire that erupted on Tuesday overnight at the Hbaline landfill in Jbeil.
It is worth noting that the residents of Jbeil, Amchit, and other neighboring regions suffered from foul smells, dust and toxic fumes emanating from the landfill.