Lebanon Littered with Toxic Waste

Lebanon Littered with Toxic Waste





    
January 2007  - Urgent widespread 
environmental problems confront the Lebanese authorities as a 
result of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel last 
summer, finds a report issued today by the United Nations 
Environment Programme, UNEP. 
On the positive side, the missiles used in the conflict did 
not contain depleted uranium or any other kind of radioactive 
material, finds the report prepared by UNEP’s Post-Conflict 
Branch. As evidence, the report cites detailed field tests and 
analysis of samples at laboratories in Europe. 
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, "The report 
provides a comprehensive picture of the outstanding 
environmental problems facing the Lebanon and its people. Some 
of these, like war-related debris, cluster bombs on farmland, 
toxic waste - the result of bomb damage and fires at 
industrial facilities - and the widespread damage to water and 
sewage systems require urgent remedial action." 
Volunteers from the Lebanese nongovernmental organization Bahr 
Loubnan remove oil from the rocky coastline north of the Jiyeh 
power plant. (Photo courtesy UNEP) 
"Others are more long-term in nature including the necessity 
for systematic monitoring of the health of local populations, 
and the environment, in certain key locations," Steiner said. 
The post-conflict assessment was carried out at the request of 
the Lebanese authorities following the cessation of 
hostilities August 14, 2006. 
Funded by the governments of Germany, Norway and Switzerland, 
the assessment was issued just ahead of a donor meeting on 
Lebanon reconstruction taking place in Paris on Thursday. 
Lebanon is expected to ask for at least US$8 billion. Public 
debt last year was around $38 billion, consuming at least 
two-thirds of government income prior to the Hezbollah war 
with Israel. 
Steiner says he hopes donors at the Paris meeting will "factor 
the environment into their plans for Lebanon." 
Many of the bombed and burned out factories and industrial 
complexes including the Jiyeh power plant south of Beirut, are 
contaminated with toxic and hazardous substances, says the 
report. 
UNEP Post-Conflict Assessment team member examines the damaged 
fuel tanks at the Jiyeh power plant on the Lebanese coast. 
(Photo courtesy UNEP) 
Urgent action is needed to remove and safely dispose of these 
substances, which include ash and leaked chemicals, amid 
concerns they represent a threat to water supplies and public 
health. 
The main hot spots of concern are the Choueifat industrial 
area where a cluster of sites was bombed, Beirut’s 
International Airport, and the Ghabris detergent factory in 
Tyre. 
At these sites there are toxic or hazardous ashes, oils, heavy 
metals, industrial chemicals, rubble, solid waste and sewage. 
These may pose health risks to cleanup workers and local 
communities. 
Toxics at several sites have the potential to leak into water 
supplies unless the sites are thoroughly decontaminated and 
the pollution contained, the report states. 
Dealing with and disposing of large quantities of war-related 
debris, including medical and hospital waste, is a major 
environmental challenge. The UNEP team found that the sheer 
scale of the debris is overwhelming existing municipal dump 
sites and waste management regimes. 
This dump site in Bourj el Barajina municipality was created 
to deal with post-conflict debris. Dust generation and the 
lack of safety equipment for workers at dump sites are serious 
problems. (Photo courtesy UNEP) 
Their report stresses the importance of rapidly removing 
unexploded cluster bombs, especially in the south of the 
country where large areas of economically important 
agricultural land have become “out of bounds” for farmers. 
Experts with the UN mine clearance operation estimate that the 
de-mining could take up to 15 months. Agricultural land should 
be the priority, particularly in prime areas like olive groves 
and fruit orchards, the team advises. 
"It is also important to provide alternative livelihood 
support for the population of southern Lebanon so that they 
are able to cope in this critical interim period without 
undermining the natural resource base," says the report. 
Cluster bomb sub-munitions recovered from South Lebanon (Photo 
courtesy UNEP) 
Fires caused the loss of economically valuable tree species in 
southern Lebanon, impairing the government’s fledgling 
reforestation program. 
Widespread damage to Lebanon’s water supply and sewage 
networks also occurred as a result of the recent hostilities. 
Prior to the 34 day conflict, the networks had been undergoing 
comprehensive upgrading and modernization. 
“These networks were extensively damaged in the conflict and 
hence present a risk of groundwater contamination and a 
potential public health hazard. Waste water management 
constitutes a major chronic environmental stress factor,” says 
the report. 
Oil pollution to the marine environment released by boming of 
the Jiyeh power plant has been largely contained and 
contamination levels appear to be generally typical of coastal 
areas of that part of the Mediterranean, good news for the 
country’s economically important tourism and fisheries 
sectors, the report found. 
At least 15,000 metric tons of fuel oil gushed from the 
damaged Jiyeh plant, affecting 150 kilometers of the Lebanese 
coastline and parts of Syria’s coast. 
Steiner praised the international emergency response effort - 
involving the Lebanese authorities, governments in the 
Mediterranean and elsewhere, the European Commission, the 
World Conservation Union, IUCN, local nongovernmental 
organizations and the United Nations, "for moving as quickly 
as the difficult circumstances permitted to tackle the spill 
at the time." 
UNEP and local experts assess damage at the glass factory in 
Zahlen. (Photo courtesy UNEP) 
The results of today’s report are based on a field assessment 
by 12 environmental experts carried out between late September 
and mid-October following a request from the Lebanese Minister 
of the Environment. 
The team was accompanied by 15 Lebanese environment ministry 
staff and volunteers and a scientist from the Lebanese Atomic 
Energy Agency. They visited over 100 selected sites. 
To settle the question of whether Lebanon was contaminated 
with depleted uranium, DU, during the conflict, the UNEP team 
visited sites showing the highest probability of having been 
attacked with deep penetrating munitions. The team also 
visited sites rumored to have been attacked with DU-containing 
weapons, including a site at Khiam. 
Following strict procedures, a range of smear, dust and soil 
samples were collected and analysed at the Swiss Spiez 
Laboratory. Analyses detected neither DU, nor enriched 
uranium, nor higher than natural uranium content, the report 
states. "No evidence of DU penetrators, DU-containing metal 
products, or any other radioactive material that could be 
linked to a weapon used was found." 
UNEP experts collect samples close to the point of impact of a 
bunker buster bomb. (Photo courtesy UNEP) 
Two radioactive sources, which were not related to weapons 
used in the conflict, were found. At Yatar, a damaged 
navigation instrument at the crash site of a military 
helicopter showed elevated radiation levels, and 
thorium-containing high temperature oven bricks were found at 
a glass factory in Zahleh. The Lebanese Atomic Energy 
Commission has been informed of these findings. 
Samples of soil, surface and ground water, dust, ash, 
seawater, sediment and molluscs like oysters were collected. 
These were sent twice a week to specialist laboratories in 
Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Duplicate samples 
were made available to the Lebanese authorities. 
Short, medium and long-term measures have been drawn up for 
each of the sites covering issues such as waste removal, 
decontamination and environmental monitoring. 
In the conflict that began on July 12 and ended on August 14, 
2006 with a UN mandated ceasefire, about 1,200 people were 
killed, over 4,400 were injured, and more than 900,000 people 
in Lebanon fled their homes. 
There was widespread destruction of roads and more than 100 
bridges and overpasses. Beirut airport and seaports were 
bombed and an estimated 30,000 housing units destroyed or 
badly damaged. 
The Lebanon Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment is online 
at: http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/UNEP_Lebanon.pdf