The landfill on fire in a beautiful green valley. Photo taken by witnesses and provided by Saydeh Nawwar.
A landfill site located in the village of Edde, which has been collecting the waste of the entire Batroun district (North Lebanon) for decades, has been on fire since Sunday evening.
Numerous complaints have been reported to the orgnaization Terre-Liban, which has urged officials to react on its Facebook page.
Saydeh Nawwar, a resident of Batroun and an environmental and animal rights activist, said it was a real disaster that has lasted for three days.
"Residents of all localities are suffocating, some are asthmatic and can no longer breathe. Several schools have not opened their doors for the past three days," she told L'Orient Today.
Solene, a mother from the village of Bejdarfel, a little higher up, assures L'Orient Today that "the smoke has prevented us from opening the windows for three days already, it's very dangerous, especially for children."
Having lived in the region for several years, this is the first time she has seen such severe smoke from the site.
Asked about the issue, the recently re-elected president of the municipal council of Edde, Najm Khattar, assured L'Orient Today that "in addition to the intervention of the Civil Defense, truckloads of fill are being used to fill the cavities through which methane escapes, fueling the fire."
"I believe that the fight against the fire is well advanced, and the fire should be completely extinguished by tomorrow [ Thursday]," he said.
While several witnesses noted that the incident broke out on the evening of the municipal elections in North Lebanon (including Batroun) this Sunday, Khattar assured that "its causes are natural, due to the methane gas released from the waste."
Saydeh Nawwar noted that "fires at this site are not uncommon, although this one is particularly virulent," suspecting that "the fire is used to reduce the volume of waste."
The activist criticized "the inaction" of the waste-disposal sector and in "the environmental sector in general," stating that "the site is in a deplorable state."
When asked what is being done to solve the problem of this dump, Khattar, who claimed the Federation of Municipalities was solely responsibile for this matter, said that there is a project, since 2016, to build a treatment plant in the same region, on a plot of land between Edde and the city of Batroun, which would reduce the volume of waste arriving at the site."
However, he added "this project costs about $3.5 million according to the studies, and the crisis has forced the federation to delay its implementation because budget evaporated with the devaluation of the national currency" in 2019.
The official emphasized that the project is nonetheless in an advanced stage. According to him, the plant has been built although not operational and equipment is currently being gradually provided by the European Union and UNICEF with a view to making it operational in the future.
In the meantime, pollution at the site continues, and the emissions of toxic fumes from the dump are suffocating the region, known for its tourism potential.
Household waste is a national headache, particularly in areas outside Mount Lebanon and Beirut, where sustainable solutions have rarely been proposed to the populations, by either the central government or local authorities.
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