Declaration of Winning Waste Management Bids Postponed as Activists Scuffle with Police

A committee tasked with evaluating waste management tenders on Wednesday postponed declaring the winning bids pending further assessment, as anti-trash protesters scuffled with security forces outside the Council for Development and Reconstruction where the meeting was held.

“It is necessary to have more than one evaluation for every region,” said Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq after the meeting.

“The declaration of the winning bids has been postponed to Tuesday for further evaluations,” he said.

Meanwhile, security forces fired water cannons to disperse dozens of protesters from the You Stink campaign after some of them tried to remove the barricades and barbed wire outside the CDR and the Grand Serail.

Protesters shouted slogans against the authorities over the failure to address the garbage crisis as some of them hurled eggs towards the Grand Serail.

Four protesters were arrested during the clashes of whom one was eventually released.

Clashes renewed in the evening as security forces used batons to disperse the demonstrators.

The You Stink anti-trash campaign said on its Facebook page that the activist Bilal Allaw was critically wounded after he was beaten by security forces. He was rushed to the American University of Beirut Medical Center.

It also said three activists were still detained, identifying them as Lucien Bourjeily, Hassan Shamas and Waref Suleiman.

The protesters vowed that they will not end their sit-in at the Riad al-Solh Square before the release of all detainees.

Mashnouq had earlier asserted that bids to solve the waste crisis would be opened and declared on Wednesday, assuring that the state will help in finding dumping ground.

“We have a sufficient number of bids that were presented to help solve the waste crisis and they will be opened and announced today with transparency,” he told An Nahar daily.

“The state will help in finding disposal grounds,” he assured.

“Today we will move from the stage of preparation to the stage of implementation starting with sweeping, landfilling and management,” said Mashnouq, adding “the bids that will be announced today have been studied thoroughly by international consultancy firms and have been evaluated technically, financially and legally.”

Mashnouq stressed that the tenders included all Lebanese regions.

On the role of the cabinet following the bid openings, Mashnouq said: “The ministerial committee will submit a report to the government and inform it on the results. The Council for Development and Reconstruction will later sign the contracts with the winning firms.”

Early in August, three private firms offered bids to manage Beirut’s waste without stating a clear disposing ground.

In July and following the closure of the Naameh landfill, which receives the waste of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, a waste management crisis erupted and continues until today.

Several regions have refused to take and bury any of the capital’s waste as a substitute for Naameh.

Municipalities have therefore been dumping garbage randomly in forests, on river banks, and valleys.

D.A./Y.R.

M.T.