Naameh Landfill Crisis Set to Grow as Closure Deadline Looms
A major crisis looms on the Naameh landfill this week as environmentalists warned that they would stop trucks from hauling waste there starting Friday, which coincides with Eid al-Fitr.
The landfill that lies in the town of Naameh south of Beirut is scheduled to be closed in accordance with a government decision.
The July 17 deadline for the closure of the landfill also coincides with the expiry of the contract with Sukleen, which is responsible for collecting and transporting the garbage in Beirut and Mount Lebanon.
In January, the cabinet decided to delay the closure of the landfill, drawing the ire of the residents of Naameh and environmentalists.
It approved the controversial decision after a long-heated debate regarding the country's plan to treat solid waste.
But the spokesman of the grouping that is campaigning against the landfill, Ajwad al-Ayyash, told An Nahar daily published on Monday that environmentalists “will not allow a single kilogram of waste to enter Naameh after July 17.”
He said there were reports that Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq has recently met with the municipal chiefs of towns near Naameh and proposed that they accept to dump only 600 tons of waste daily and distribute the rest in other landfills.
But al-Ayyash accused them of violating the law. “We will only accept the implementation of the (government's) decision,” he said.
The plan devised by Environment Minister al-Mashnouq decentralizes the management of solid waste, divides Lebanon into six blocks and limits the licensing of garbage collection to one contractor in maximum two blocks.
When the government approved the plan, it also decided that contractors who win tenders would find the location of landfills.
But an informed source told An Nahar last month that the authorities have failed to find a solution to the plan after only three contractors made proposals for the treatment of waste in the districts of Jbeil, Keserouan and Metn and no party made a bid for Beirut.
The bidding process failed because the plan calls for having at least three bidders in each area, the source said.
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