Solid waste plan:
Fourth time a charm?

Sukleen to carry on tasks, new tender by
CDR, and three landfills in the works

The Council of Ministers has approved a waste management plan to resolve the ongoing garbage crisis. The plan will be carried out over the next four years, during which a sustainable plan for the longer term, should be put together.

Two landfills and treatment facilities will be developed in Burj Hammoud and Costa Brava,Khalde. The Naameh landfill will be reopened for two months to receive part of the waste that has accumulated in administrative Beirut during the past few months. The other part will be sent to the Saida treatment facility and the two treatment and landfill sites to be developed.

A treatment and landfill facility will later be chosen to receive solid waste from the Shouf and Aley cazas.

The plan tasks the ministers of finance and interior and municipalities to prepare a draft law on incentives to be given to municipalities that host the treatment landfill sites. A sum of $8 million will be distributed to each of the municipalities of Bourj Hammoud, Jdeide-Bauchrieh, Choueifat, Bourj El Barajneh, and the municipality that will host the treatment and landfill site for Shouf and Aley, until the law is ratified by the Parliament. The funds will be paid from the share of benefiting municipalities from the municipality fund. As for Naameh, $6 per ton will be cut from the municipal fund and paid to the concerned municipality.

Another $50 million will be allocated to cover development projects in the mentioned municipalities, to be distributed over four years. A program draft law will be prepared to discuss these projects and to be later sent to the Parliament.

The Council for Development and Reconstruction was tasked with holding tenders within two months for administrative Beirut and Mount Lebanon, excluding Jbeil, for treatment, collection, and transportation, sorting and treatment, landfilling, studies and supervision, and the construction of sorting facilities and sanitary landfills. Contract execution will also be funded by the municipal fund.

Sukleen and Sukomi will continue to carry out their tasks until the tender results are announced.

The Council of Ministers has approved the requests of Burj Hammoud-Jdeide, Bauchrieh-El Sad, and Choueifat to exploit reclaimed land that will be used for waste treatment.

The Minister of Interior will form a committee consisting of representatives from the ministries of Interior, Environment, Finance, and State Office for Administrative Reforms, as well as civil community bodies, and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to oversee the implementation of the plan.

The sustainable plan that should be outlined in the next four years counts on the right of municipalities, unions of municipalities, or service areas to manage waste treatment, as well as sorting at the source.

This is the fourth ‘strike’, in which a plan has been announced with the goal of resolving the solid waste problem. The Ministry of Environment had held tenders for six service areas, which were later annulled due to high prices. The second was a plan by the Ministry of Agriculture and the third was for the export of waste by British and Dutch firms.