Lebanon's interior and environment ministers met with municipal officials Friday to discuss a developing waste crisis. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi and Environment Minister Nasser Yassin met Friday with municipal officials to discuss “possible solutions” to an impasse over trash collection in parts of Beirut and environs, the NNA reported.
Here is what we know:
• The two ministers held a meeting at the Ministry of Interior in Beirut with local municipal officials from Beirut, its southern suburbs, Mount Lebanon and Metn to discuss the growing problem of garbage piling up on streets after waste management contractors Ramco and City Blu discontinued their collection services.
• The NNA did not elaborate on possible solutions broached in the meeting, which also included a senior official from the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR). On Wednesday, Ramco asked the CDR to launch a tender to find a new contractor to replace it.
• In its statement, Ramco said it has suffered “huge financial losses” due to what the company dubbed the failures of authorities to abide by its contract with the CDR and Beirut municipality.
• Ramco also said Wednesday that it would offer to sell its equipment to a successor contractor so as to prevent “a new garbage crisis.”
• On Thursday, the Ghobeiri municipality, south of Beirut, said that City Blu had stopped collecting trash due to the losses it suffered stemming from the decreasing value of the Lebanese lira.