The Director of the National Center for Marine Sciences Milad Fakhri presented the National Center for Scientific Research’s (NCSR) annual report on the status of marine environment at the institution’s headquarters in Beirut’s Bir Hasan neighborhood.

This presentation marks an annual event, knowing that sampling and testing are carried out during the year. The stations monitored are mainly public beaches.

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Beach rating from Good to Very Good (1 to 200 bacterial colonies per 100 milliliters of seawater) starting from the north to the south:

• The public beach in Minyeh,

• the beaches in al-Mina and facing the sports city in Tripoli,

• the Deir Natour and Taht al-Reeh beaches in Anfeh,

• Heri and Selaata (little bacteriological pollution despite the presence of chemical, pollution from industry) in Chekka,

• all beaches in Batroun, Amchit, Jbeil, Fidar and Nahr Ibrahim,

• the beach of Maameltein in Kesrouan,

• the beaches of Khaldeh and Rmeileh,

• the beaches of Adloun in Sarafand,

• the marine reserve in Sour and Naqoura.

Beach rating as swimming with caution (201 to 500 bacterial colonies per 100 milliliters of seawater), also from north to south, are the following:

• The beaches of Qleiaat in Akkar,

• Ain al-Mreisseh and Manara in Beirut,

• the public beaches of Saida and Ghazieh and the large sandy beach of Sour in South Lebanon.

Some of these beaches are very popular, as are the five sites that remain extremely polluted (more than 500 bacterial colonies per 100 milliliters of seawater):

• Tripoli’s public beach in North Lebanon,

• the beach at Jounieh port,

• the coasts of Dbayeh and Antelias in Metn,

• the beach of Beirut’s Ramlet al-Bayda.

The coastline stretching from Metn to Beirut remains the most heavily polluted, due to excessive urbanization along the coast.

Marine bacteriological pollution has been a constant problem in Lebanon, due to the lack of wastewater treatment plants and being mostly out of service, although millions of dollars were invested in the past 30 years.

Unexplained improvement

During his press conference, however, Fakhri highlighted the improvement in the tests carried out on these sites, noting that the number of beaches deemed safe for swimming increased from 22 in 2023 to 26 in 2024.

Sites intermittently polluted and marked as “swim with caution” have fallen from seven last year to six this year.

Extremely polluted sites fell from eight last year to five this year.

Commenting on the reasons behind this improvement, Fakhri said that the study focused on identifying whether water quality improved, without laying down the reasons.

However, he added that some municipal councils have improved their beach management, and some coasts have benefited from the relocation of sewage outlets.

Fish safe to eat

There is more good news: Locally collected fish have lower-than-average levels of heavy metals in general, and are therefore fit for consumption, according to the center.

Tests were carried out on 11 popular local fish species and showed that trace element concentrations of cadmium, lead and mercury were below the percentages set by the European Commission.

Studies were carried out on two types of shellfish widely consumed locally, Spondylus spinosus and Patella rustica, filtering species that can be particularly affected by pollutants. Indeed, pollution levels in these two species were higher than normal.

Heavy metals were also present at moderate levels in sediments along the coast, except for cadmium and lead (which was only found in Tripoli’s public beach).

Finally, and unsurprisingly, tests carried out by the NCSR’s Center for Marine Studies found high levels of solid waste contamination on the coast, particularly plastic waste.

Microplastics, the waste that breaks down in water and ends up becoming part of all ecosystems and all bodies, is a problem that affects Lebanon and the whole world, Tamara Zein, the NCSR’s secretary general, said at the press conference.

This year’s report pointed to another major problem: The growing quantity of plastic granules, raw material used in industries that ends up in the sea.

Lebanon has been suffering from disastrous household waste management. There are several large unauthorized landfills along the coast, not to mention the two government landfills at Costa Brava and Burj Hammoud-Jdeideh, which serve Beirut and Mount Lebanon and are also located on the coast.

This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour and translated by Joelle El Khoury.