Lebanon cabinet approves plan to end trash crisis
Lebanon’s cabinet has agreed on a plan to end a months-long waste disposal crisis that triggered unprecedented and widespread public outcry.
The agreement was reached after over six hours of discussion in an emergency cabinet session called by Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam on Wednesday evening.
“Tonight the cabinet approved a path out of the crisis,” said Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayeb after the session.
According to the complex plan, the waste collection has been decentralized, a key demand of activists, and thus its management duties have been devolved to municipalities and two more “sanitary landfills” are to open in far-flung locations.
The Naameh landfill, which was closed in July amid local protests, would be reopened for a week only to deal with piles of trash that have been dumped here and there in capital Beirut and its suburbs, Shehayeb further said.
However, reopening Lebanon’s largest landfill, though temporarily, might anger people living in its vicinity, because the condition of living around it is intolerable.
The protesting campaign of “You Stink”, which has crippled the capital partially, was launched after the environment ministry closed Naameh landfill site on July 17 because it had been filled up. Since its closure, garbage collectors have stopped taking the garbage away, saying they have no place to dispose it.
The stench of uncollected garbage has filled the streets of Beirut, prompting the health ministry to warn that the country will be on the brink of a “major health disaster” if the issue is not quickly resolved.
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