Will short-term solution help Lebanon solve trash crisis?
After drowning in piles of trash for more than eight months, Lebanon is implementing a landfill plan rejected by civil movements amid concerns of the environmental, health and economic damages ensuing from this crisis.
BEIRUT — A military escort accompanied garbage trucks to the controversial Naameh landfill over the weekend as they hauled some of the 8,000 tons of waste that has been collected from Lebanon's streets, local media reported.
Authorities reopened the dump as a temporary measure to rid the country's neighborhoods of mounds of trash that have accumulated since the landfill closed in July after protesters claimed it constituted a significant health hazard. People now fear the garbage-laden streets pose a more immediate threat of disease and environmental damage. Under the government's short-term plan, workers began removing piles of garbage March 19, The Daily Star reported, but the public is calling for a long-term solution.
