Students gather near a school where a ceiling collapsed in the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood of Tripoli, northern Lebanon, on Nov. 2 2022. (Credit : Courtesy of Michel Hallak)
BEIRUT — Parliament's Public Works, Transportation, Energy and Water Committee on Wednesday decided to form a sub-committee tasked with tracking buildings at risk of collapse, as well as investigating last week's collapse of a classroom roof that killed a 16-year-old in Tripoli.
Last week, Maguy Mahmoud died in her school in Tripoli's Jabal Mohsen neighborhood when the roof of her classroom caved in. Another student was injured in the incident. The school building dates back to the Ottoman era and is one of many dilapidated structures in the city.
According to the state-run National News Agency, the head of the parliamentary committee Sagih Attieh (Akkar/former Future Movement) said Wednesday that "what is needed from all the municipalities of Lebanon and from the Education Ministry is for them to count, monitor and search [their buildings], so that we see where the real danger to the lives and souls of our children comes from."
Attieh told L'Orient Today that he is "surprised" that caretaker Education Minister Abbas Halabi, who was reportedly invited to the meeting, did not show up.
"He did not send a representative, nor did he answer our calls... this disrespect for Parliament is unacceptable and this is a file that concerns him," Attieh added.
On Tuesday, a man died when a wall collapsed on him in the al-Maloulah neighborhood of Tripoli.
And in June, a building collapse in Tripoli killed a young girl and injured several others. The building was five stories high and in poor condition.
The chairwoman of the Lebanese Association of Properties, Andera Zouheiry, said in June that “4,000 buildings are at risk” of collapse in Tripoli.