Environment Ministry Launches Probe as Beirut River Turns Red
The environment ministry was on Thursday investigating the mysterious red color that tainted the Beirut River a day earlier, urging the Hazmiyeh and Baabda municipalities to cooperate with it.
Beirut police went in vain up and down the stream on Wednesday to locate the source of the red liquid.
As Safir daily said that the ministry’s team of experts headed by Bassam Sabbagh made an initial finding that the pollutant has no odor and that the red color could come from blood, a chemical, or a dye.
“The source of the pollution hasn’t been identified yet because it comes from a closed sewage,” Environment Minister Nazem al-Khoury said. “But it could probably be from the Hazmiyeh or Baabda municipalities.”
He urged the municipalities to cooperate as soon as possible to determine the source and type of pollution.
“There is a possibility that a factory threw pollutants or a slaughterhouse” threw the remains of animals, al-Khoury said.
An unlicensed farm could also be behind the pollution, he added.
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