Will religiously divided landfills solve Lebanon's trash crisis?
Garbage is piling ever higher across Lebanon as political parties refuse to allow waste from outside their areas to be disposed in their constituency.
The pictures of floating garbage after rain fell on Beirut Oct. 25 are indicative of the situation plaguing this small country. The shameful images, which went viral, point to Lebanon literally being a failed state. The Lebanese government — or what's left of it in light of the presidential vacuum ongoing since May 2014 and the parliamentary paralysis making it impossible to elect the president or enact new laws — is also unable to perform the most basic of municipal tasks: clearing roads of garbage.
Is this the paralysis that on Oct. 16 prompted Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk to threaten to have his team resign from the government? Machnouk probably prefers not to bear false witness or be turned into a scapegoat following numerous protests against the prime minister, environment minister and himself, all affiliated with the Future Movement. Garbage has been piling up on the streets since August.
