Majdal Anjar Residents Block Masnaa Road in Protest at Landfill Plans
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Residents of the Bekaa town of Majdal Anjar on Friday blocked the key al-Masnaa road that links the province to Syria in protest at government plans to set up a garbage landfill in the area's outskirts on the Eastern Mountain Range.
Municipal chief Sami al-Ajami, al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Assem Araji and a number of dignitaries and spiritual leaders took part in the protest.
Araji stressed his rejection of establishing a landfill in the area, which he described as “the town's real face, especially in front of the Arab tourists.”
Meanwhile, Ajami and the town's imam Sheikh Mohammed Abdul Rahman expressed categorical rejection of setting up a landfill and bringing garbage from other regions, “no matter what the cost might be.”
Protesters also carried banners urging the region's MPs to resign.
The rally comes on the heels of similar protests in the Naameh area, south of Beirut, and in the northern district of Akkar.
On Thursday, protesters took to the streets in both regions to condemn a plan devised by Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb and a team of experts which envisages reopening the controversial Naameh landfill for a period of seven days and setting up a landfill in the Akkar town of Srar.
Protests were also held or were scheduled to be held in the southern city of Sidon and the Bourj Hammoud area, east of Beirut, after Shehayyeb cited a role for waste management plants in the two regions.
The waste management crisis began in July when the Naameh landfill closed, causing trash to pile up on roadsides and in parking lots and riverbeds.
It sparked broad-based protests in Beirut, where demonstrators gathered again on Wednesday despite a sandstorm to demand a long-term solution to the trash fiasco.
Y.R.
11 September 2015, 17:59
73
Panama.boy : I agree with you , this is an ultra selfish mentality .
What do the Poeple want ? Don't they want the garbage to be removed from beirut in coordination with a "1st time full party government approval " or do they want the country to go to war due to this crisis ? .... I believe we shouldn't blame the politicians only for our problems
11 September 2015, 20:41
62
Sure . If we had a place set for that and was a dump before , then yes . But ; garbage needs garbage unfortunately
11 September 2015, 19:36
74
They should have a landfill in da7ye it's already zoned for it effectively.
11 September 2015, 19:39
73
well said PB. Personally I am for the reopening of the old trash dumps whilst a lasting and durable solution is found, but I stress on finding solutions in the time the sites are opened, so by any measure, such will have to be temporary and not permanent. The people are deeply worried that they'd be taken for another expensive ride which is possibly why they are showing such anxiety. However in view of the looming catastrophe awaiting the rains, it would be wise of truly cautious if we all move to avert the worst. Let the dumps be reopened, but only on the condition that solutions will be found during the interim period. If not then something worse will happen in the near future, it's all about integrity which both M8 and M14 have lost a very long time ago, so the drop that overflowed the glass also calls for new leaders, well away from both Ms.
12 September 2015, 13:13
01
It's a very sad state of affairs when an M8 rat trolls and answers his very self. The worst part is when they talk of trash, what would a sewer rat do without trash, trash is their very survival food.
