by AFP

A garbage crisis has returned to Lebanon
with trash piling up in regions north of Beirut months after the
government headed off a political crisis over uncollected waste. The
local council in the suburb of Bourj Hammoud, where a temporary dump is
located, have for the past week denied access to garbage trucks on the
grounds that the authorities had failed to honour a commitment to open a
waste-treatment plant. In
March, after an eight-month crisis which led to mass street protests,
the government approved a “temporary plan” to open two new landfills,
one in Bourj Hammoud to the north and another south of the capital.

But recycling plans have failed to take shape.

A
landfill in Naameh, 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Beirut, opened in
1997 and was meant to be a temporary dump but an alternative site was
never found.

For 20 years, the waste generated in Beirut and Mount Lebanon — the country’s most populous areas — was dumped in Naameh.

The verdant valley swelled into a trash mountain of more than 15 million tonnes.

Furious
residents forced the closure of the site in July 2015, saying it was
leading to high cancer rates, skin diseases and breathing problems.

Uncollected
rubbish began piling up around Beirut and its suburbs, emitting a
horrible stench that sparked protests in downtown Beirut demanding a
long-term solution.

After
months of political wrangling, Lebanon’s cabinet announced a four-year
plan to end the waste crisis — and its first step was reopening Naameh
for two months