Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
The cabinet is expected to convene on Saturday morning to approve the trash management file after an agreement that was reached on Friday by a concerned ministerial panel, reported al-Liwaa newspaper on Saturday.
Ministerial sources told the daily that “all political powers are represented in the deal.”
“The crisis is no longer up for debate and it can be approved by the government today,” they stressed.
The deal calls for using the Bourj Hammoud and Naameh landfills and for using the Costa Brava dump.
The Naameh dump, which closed in July 2015, will be reopened for a week before being permanently shut.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam contacted Speaker Nabih Berri and Mustaqbal Movement chief MP Saad Hariri upon the conclusion of the ministerial panel meeting on Friday to inform them of the details of the discussions.
Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq told al-Liwaa that Friday’s agreement is “temporary and will last four years during which the foundations and mechanisms to reach a permanent solution for the trash disposal crisis will be reached.”
These solutions include landfills, incinerators, and the generation of electricity from the garbage, he revealed.
Al-Liwaa said that the cost of a ton of trash has been set at 200 dollars, adding that a total of a million tons of waste are generated per year.
The estimated cost of the implementation of Friday’s deal will be around 200 million dollars, excluding the incentives granted to concerned municipalities, reported the daily.
Lebanon was plunged in a trash management crisis after the closure of the Naameh dump last year.
The dump was dedicated to tackling Beirut and Mount Lebanon’s waste.
The closure resulted in the pile up of garbage on the streets throughout the country, sparking environmental and health warnings over the prolongation of the problem.
Popular protests have been held against the crisis and they developed into demonstrations against the political class.
