Kfar Abida's public beach, one of the few public beaches on a majority privatized coastline, is an idyllic spot very popular with swimmers. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — The acting mayor of al-Heri, North Lebanon Governor Ramzi Nohra, asked the Internal Security Forces (ISF) yesterday to stop the extraction of sand from al-Heri's beach, in Batroun district, saying it violates the law, the state-run National News Agency reports. Despite these calls, the extraction work had not yet halted by Tuesday, according to Paul Rached, director of the environmental organization TERRE Liban. Rached had first raised concerns about the damaging coastline work on Sunday.
"Please inform and instruct the concerned unit in Batroun to stop the sand extraction works in the vicinity of the Florida Beach Resort immediately," the statement from Nohra reads. "The works are being carried out in violation of legal principles and without taking the approval of the concerned municipality and the Ministry of Environment, and without conducting an environmental impact assessment." A source at Florida Beach Resort told L'Orient Today that the resort has nothing to do with the extraction works and that the Ministry of Works is the one involved in this project.
Nohra described al-Heri as a tourist village characterized by a beautiful sandy beach known to draw in visitors. Extracting sand off the beach distorts the landscape, he argued, and affects the environment and public safety.
In a post on Facebook, Rached, on behalf of TERRE Liban, called on the Parliamentary Works Committee to hold Minister of Public Works Ali Hamiyeh accountable for allowing the sand extraction to go forward and to ensure the license to do so is canceled. "How can the Ministry of Public Works allow 30,000 cubic meters of sand formed over millions of years, which is irreplaceable and belongs to future generations, to be extracted from the beach in three months?" he wrote.
A source at the Ministry of Works claimed that the license which had been granted was solely for the Florida Beach Resort area, and does not include removing sand from al-Heri Beach. "The license granted is limited only to clearing the entrance to the yacht harbor of the Florida Beach Resort in accordance with the laws and regulations in force so that yachts and tourist boats can enter and exit the harbor without hitting the seabed," the source said.
It had not yet been determined, they explained, exactly how much sand would be extracted to open up the entrance to the resort and its harbor. They claimed that the same process is applied to all harbors used for docking fishing vessels, and said they felt it was "very strange" that the issue was being raised.
In an attempt, perhaps, to appease concerns, the source added that the sand extracted from the Mediterranean shoreline would be used by the Lebanese Army for "national defense purposes to build fortifications and defenses."
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Contacted by L'Orient Today, Rached said that the contract signed by the Ministry of Works was given for three months for 3,000 tons of sand which is "an ecological catastrophe." According to the TERRE Liban director, the harbor's entrance can be opened by removing significantly less sand than the allocated amount.
In a statement released on Monday, TERRE Liban thanked Judge Nohra for stepping in in an attempt to stop the extraction: "After the association raised the violation of the extraction of 30,000 cubic meters of sand on al-Heri Beach, and its daily follow-up of the issue with the concerned parties and civil society in the region, Nohra issued today a decision that prevents the extraction of sand at the beach."
With the ISF having failed to implement Nohra's request, the extraction was still underway on Tuesday. Nohra reiterated to L'Orient Today his call for the extraction to halt but did not specify what options were available should ongoing attempts meet a dead end.
