Cabinet approves plan
to rehabilitate dumpsites

Priority for 20 locations nationwide

The Cabinet has approved a plan by the Ministry of Environment (MoE) to shut down and rehabilitate ad-hoc dumpsites that have been created over the years, especially during the waste crisis that started in the summer of 2015.

The total cost of rehabilitating the top 20 dumpsites is $36 million. The cost for rehabilitating the remaining dumpsites is estimated to be $25 million.

The top 20 priority dumpsites, as per the Master Plan, are located in Tripoli, Jbeil, Minieh-Donnieh, Batroun, Akkar, Zahle, Sour, Ballouneh, Beit Chabeb, Saida, Baalbek, and Nabatieh.

The total number of identified dumpsites reached 941 in 2016 compared to 670 in 2011, according to the ‘Updated Master Plan for the Closure and Rehabilitation of Uncontrolled Dumpsites Throughout the Country of Lebanon’, issued by the MoE and UNDP in 2017.

The dumpsites contain a total of 5.7 million cubic meters (m3) of waste. Akkar and the North contain 50 percent of the total waste, Beirut and Mount Lebanon 17 percent, Nabatieh and the South 14 percent, and Bekaa and Baalbek-Hermel 20 percent.

The Minister of the Environment, Tarek El-Khatib, assembled the heads of municipalities in Beirut and Mount Lebanon to involve them in the Master Plan, which is part of the sustainable solid waste management policy adopted by the Cabinet earlier this year.

The municipalities are required to inform the Ministry of the extent of their ability to manage solid waste. The parts which cannot be managed by municipalities will be handled by a central management team, represented by the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR).