Roundup: Trash crisis threatens Lebanon's government

Since the "Naameh landfill" on the Mount Lebanon in the southern coast was officially closed as of July 17, the country has plunged in an unprecedented trash crisis that sent people on the streets and is seriously threatening the cabinet after Prime Minister Tammam Salam talked about resignation.

According to the constitution, the cabinet takes charge of the president's post in case of vacancy, which has been the case since May 25, 2014 after the six-year term of President Michel Suleiman ended and the parliament failed to elect a new president.

Adding to the tense political situation in the country, and with the parliament unable to convene on legislative sessions because of the boycott of some parliamentarian blocs, the only constitutional institution working in Lebanon is the cabinet despite of the political divisions that have threatened its existence.

However, with the trash crisis, an uncertain future awaits the coming meeting of the cabinet, which was postponed from Tuesday till Thursday.

The trash crisis started after residents living near the "Naameh landfill" enforced a government pledge to close down the landfill on July 17, and refused any talks about a possible extension since the government could not find an alternative site.

The government pledged last year that the landfill would be closed and an alternative site would be found. But the date came and went with no solution found.

The residents began blocking the route to the site, and Beirut's trash collector, the "Sukleen" firm, stored waste at its facilities, but by July 20 they were at capacity and garbage began piling up in the streets.

"The residents of the surrounding areas of Naameh took the decision not to reopen the landfill, and it is up to the government to find an alternative location," Hisham Yehya, an active member of the campaign "No for reopening Naameh landfill" told Xinhua.

"We have been accepting a de-facto situation for 18 years, but now the landfill is full and so is our patience. We do not want to die intoxicated," he said.

The landfill was supposed to be operating with the highest standards of safety to curb off the emissions of gases and bad smells from the landfill, and despite the promises of generating power from the landfill to provide the residents of the surrounding villages with electricity, nothing has been done.

"Promises, nothing but promises," Yehya added, pointing out that "despite the government promised to compensate our suffering, it was nothing but words."

Meanwhile, the government tried to solve "temporarily' the problem by selecting a landfill in the Iklim al-Kharroub region, not far from the Naameh, pushing the protesters to close the vital highway that links Beirut with the south.

But the protesters reopened the highway after receiving pledges from officials that no garbage trucks would be sent to the Iqlim al-Kharroub region.

Trash collection, meanwhile, had partially resumed in Beirut but several streets are still overflowing with waste and the air is filled with the smell of rotting garbage.

Late on Monday, a ministerial session, headed by Salam, decided to move the trash of Beirut to undisclosed locations as a "temporary solution that involves the "immediate resumption" of waste collection in Beirut, a "balanced distribution" of Beirut and Mount Lebanon's garbage to new locations and financial "incentives" to municipalities.

Trash collection resumed on Monday evening but anti-trash activists blocked several roads in Beirut to protest the authorities' failure to find a permanent solution to the waste crisis.

Fatima Houhou, a resident of Iklim al-Kharroub, said "we are still under the threat of selecting a site in our region to dump the trash of the capital city and its suburbs. Let them drop their waste in the suburbs. We do not want them here."

Houhou told Xinhua that "whatever it is going to cost us, we will not accept the trash of others to be buried under our noses."

"The trash crisis has been addressed unfortunately on a sectarian basis," Ali el Husseini from the Beirut southern suburbs told Xinhua.

"The Iklim al-Kharroub" is a Sunni region while the southern suburb of Beirut is mostly Shiite and is known as the heartland of Hezbollah. It is a pity that the trash crisis in this country could ignite a sectarian war," he said.

Facing this reality, Salam has threatened to resign office if there is "no proper handling of the crisis and the participation of all the political forces. It is a national crisis and not a political difference." Endit