Jumblat Says No Hand in Any Garbage-Linked Investment
Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat has stressed that he had no ties to any investment linked to Lebanon's waste management crisis.
Jumblat told As Safir daily published on Wednesday that there was potential for his sons Taymour and Aslan to enter in a partnership with Riad al-Asaad.
“But three weeks ago I withdrew my hand totally from the case after I felt (it would have) political dangers,” the lawmaker said.
“Consequently I have no ties to Asaad's company or any other private company and I am not a partner in any rumored deal,” stressed Jumblat.
Asaad is the owner of South for Construction s.a.l., a Lebanese contracting company specialized in infrastructure, road works, marine works, buildings and maintenance of infrastructure network utilities.
Asked about a protest carried out by the residents of Ain Dara, which lies in Aley district, on Tuesday, Jumblat said: “They don't have the right to object.”
The residents blocked the vital Dahr al-Baydar road over reports that garbage from other areas will be transferred to their region.
The highway links the Beirut, Mount Lebanon and Bekaa regions.
The location to dump the waste there is “dead because of the stone crushing plants that had already exploited it,” said Jumblat.
The garbage crisis erupted following the closure of the Naameh landfill that lies south of Beirut on July 17.
Waste continued to pile up in Beirut and Mount Lebanon because the authorities failed to find an alternative.
Although Sukleen resumed to collect waste, there has been controversy on where the trash is being dumped in addition to warnings from local officials and protests by residents to stop the transfer of garbage from Beirut and Mount Lebanon to their regions.
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