$240 million budget
at the Municipality of Beirut

Council will take

over the garbage issue

The Municipality of Beirut has earmarked $240 million for its budget for 2017. About 50 percent of this will be spent to operational costs and salaries. The remaining will be used to start and complete infrastructure projects.

Mohammad Said Fatha, member of the Municipal Board, said: “One of the most important issues we will handle is the collection, sweeping, and transport of waste.”

The municipality will hold a tender for interested companies. The contract will either be a build-operate-transfer (BOT) or design-build-operate-transfer (DBOT) over a period of 25 years. Another tender will be launched for the establishment of a waste-to-energy plant that will be able to process 1,000 tons of waste per day.

“The garbage will be temporarily moved to the Costa Brava dump, Bourj Hammoud, and around 250 tons daily to Saida,” he said.

Members of the municipal council are visiting Copenhagen next week to examine a waste-to-energy plant built near the city center.

The Municipality has also assigned a number of consultants to study the establishment of parking lots in different locations. These locations are Martyrs Square, Ain el Mreisseh, Tarik el Jdideh, Cola, Jeanne d’Arc, Bishop Audi Garden, Mufti Hassan Khaled Garden, Ramlet el Bayda Garden, and at the retail vegetable souk in Tarik el Jdideh. In total, more than 10,000 parking spaces will be made available.

The Municipality will also work on transforming the municipal stadium in Tarik el Jdideh into a multi-use civic center.

The construction of a slaughterhouse in Choueifat to serve Beirut is on hold. “The property has been bought by the former council, and now we are negotiating with politicians in that area to allow us to do it,” he said.

Fatha complained about the administrative routine. “It takes time to purchase property, conduct the needed studies, get the approval of the Governor, the Ministry of Interior, and Court of Accounts.”

He said this is the main reason why these projects have taken so long.