DAILY SCOPE: Waste Crisis Solution in Horizon

Local Editor

NEWSPAPERS HREADLINES

AS-SAFIR

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AL-AKHBAR

Beirut Wastes in ‘Secret' Dumps

Lebanon Mounts Garbage Bins!

AN-NAHAR

Waste Crisis Expands: Will Cabinet Sessions Be Postponed?

Bread Crisis Looms and Aviation Safety under Threat

AL-JOMHOURIYA

Syrian Forces, Kurds Expel "ISIL" from Syra's Hasaka

New Phase in Euro-Iranian Relations

AD-DIYAR

Praying in Quds One Day is Inevitable despite Ordeals

AL-BALAD

Wastes Source of Art, Power... Only If Cabinet Wants
For the second week in a row, the waste management crisis makes the headlines of Lebanese daily newspapers, where a temporary solution seems to loom in the horizon after 11 days of waste floods in the streets of Beirut and Mount Lebanon. Although the temporary solution has been allegedly found to collect waste, controversy has erupted over the dumping sites of the garbage.

Waste Management Requires Political Support, Army Follow-Up --- AS-SAFIR

Ministerial sources told As-Safir Lebanese daily that managing the wastes crisis will only happen under two conditions; a true political umbrella and a follow-up by the army and security forces of the process in practice. According to the paper, officials in the cabinet were busy convening on Tuesday to discuss the waste management crisis and agree on a new landfill, probably in an area that is already considered a ‘dead zone' such as quarries.

According to the paper, the choice may fall upon the vital Dahr al-Baydar area as garbage from other areas will be transferred to that region. The Dahr al-Baydar highway links the Beirut, Mount Lebanon and Bekaa regions.

The location to dump the waste there is "dead because of the quarries that had already exploited it," the paper quoted MP Walid Jumblatt as saying.

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.

Secret Random Dumps Filled at Night --- AL-AKHBAR

The waste management crisis in Lebanon brings to mind the random dumps and landfills during the civil war, said al-Akhbar newspaper, warning that a lot of the garbage is being taken to ‘secret dumps' at night. This, according to the paper, raises questions on whether such was the decision of Environment Minister Mohammad al-Mashnouq, who declared a few days ago that a solution has been made for the crisis but the work will be carried out discretely.

Dumping Waste near Airport Threatens Aviation --- AN-NAHAR

Public Works Minister Ghazi Zoaiter, and the former head of Lebanon's Civil Aviation have warned against dumping waste near Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport.
Zoaiter told An-Nahar newspaper published on Wednesday that he has sent memos to the ministers of interior, defense and environment to inform them of the dangers of dumping waste in the airport's vicinity.

Waste collector company Sukleen has been dumping garbage near the airport's fence.

Zoaiter has held the three ministries the responsibility in any dereliction that would put the safety of flights in danger.

The daily also quoted the former general manager of Civil Aviation, Hamdi Shawqi, as saying that the waste being dumped near the airport would reach levels higher than the elevation of the tarmac, warning that the garbage also changes the temperature near the runway and that airplanes are directly influenced by the climate."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team