The waste crisis keeps getting messier

Source: CNN

As of the waste crises Lebanon has endured in the last few years wasn’t enough, another looming problem reared its head and shocked Lebanese residents last week on the shores of Keserouan, north of the Lebanese capital Beirut, when large amounts of garbage were suddenly strewn along the coast.

What’s happening at Tripoli’s dumpsite?

Source: Reuters UK

Lebanon’s garbage crisis doesn’t only extend to Beirut and Saida. Tripoli has been reeling from its own “garbage mountain”, whose elevation has surpassed the maximum agreed limit of 25 meters now reaching 37 meters. Residents have complained to the mayor of the dumpsite’s dire conditions. The residents suffer from unbearable odors, and are worried about pollution that may negatively affect their health, with some claiming that cancer cases are increasing among Tripoli’s population.

Lebanon’s environmental activists tackle its myriad of environmental problems

Source: Saida Al Youm

This week, a beach cleaning campaign was launched targeting Al Zira, a small island off the coast of Sidon. The campaign was initiated by the newly formed organization “Friends of Al Zira and Sidon’s Beach”. The first stage of campaign consists of cleaning the trash, fixing umbrellas, distributing waste containers and marking a swimming zone (boat free area). The later stages will include more permanent fixtures such as hiring a staff to maintain the beach, build restrooms and changing rooms and fix the island’s infrastructure. Sidon has recently witnessed several environmental projects; last month a series of initiatives took place to make Sidon an environmentally-friendly city by 2020.

The land of pollution

Source: An Nahar

Pollution is widespread in Lebanon and not enough seems to be done to tackle it. In the past two weeks residents protested exposure to pollution from a power plant and landfill. Over the past year, this blog wrote about many pollution incidents such river and sea pollution. Many more incidents can be found on local media. Despite several efforts made by the government and donor agencies to tackle this problem, there has been little news of anyone being held accountable.