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Lebanon approves plan to solve trash crisis

Xinhua, March 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

Lebanon on Saturday approved a plan to establish two landfills to ease a trash crisis that has lasted for eight months and triggered demonstrations of thousands residents.

According to the National News Agency, the Cabinet agreed to set up temporary landfills in Bourj Hammoud, north east of Beirut, and in the coastal area of Costa Brava, south of Beirut, as it agreed to re-open the Naameh landfill for two months.

The plan will be valid over four years, during which the government will map out a permanent solution to the country's waste issue, said Information Minister Ramzi Jreij.

The government will allocate 50 million U.S. dollars in the development projects for the towns near the landfills and will separately allocate eight million dollars annually to each municipality which will open a landfill.

The minister added that a committee will be set up to monitor the implementation of the plan.

Ministers belonging to the Kataeb Party had objected to the government's trash plan, calling on it to be approved by the people first.

"We abstained from the Cabinet decision but we will not delay the implementation of the plan," said Labor Minister Sejaan Azzi, who represents the Kataeb Party in the government.

The Armenian Tashnag party also opposed the plan at the meeting as the Bourj Hammoud municipality, where a landfill is set to be established, is home to the largest Armenian population in the country.

The government's agreement came after thousands of protesters gathering in Riad al-Solh Square in central Beirut demanding an end to the trash crisis that has left piles of rubbish on beaches, in mountain forests and river beds across Lebanon after the country's largest landfill at Naameh, just south of Beirut, was closed in July, 2015.

Saturday's announcement is likely to spur fresh protests by locals who are concerned of the health and environmental risks of living near a landfill.

The government was forced to review the plans to set up landfills in the country after an export scheme, in which trash would be shipped to Russia, collapsed last month due to alleged corruption. Endit