A quarry carves out the mountains near the village of Ain Dara, in July 2019. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
Anger has been growing in the Koura region since Tuesday over item 27 on Thursday’s Cabinet agenda.
The line reads: “The Environment Ministry is submitting for debate a request from the National Cement Company for a permit for the exploitation and rehabilitation of its quarries for cement production in Kfar Hazir and Bedbahon [Koura district].”
For many residents, the issue revives a long and bitter fight.
“There is no way we will accept a reopening of the quarries in Kfar Hazir. We have already filed complaints with the State Council more than once and prevailed against exceptional administrative deadlines,” said Fares Nassif, president of the environmental association Heritage of the Land.
The quarries have long been at the center of a confrontation between the company and local communities, who cite ruined landscapes, environmental harm and health concerns linked to pollution.
Last May, the government revoked a special two-year exploitation permit granted to cement factories by the previous Cabinet. At the time, Environment Minister Tamara Elzein told L’Orient-Le Jour that companies must instead apply under decree 8803, the sector’s only governing regulation.
Work on such a request has been underway since last summer. Still, residents say they want the quarries permanently closed. Nassif cited an official survey measuring community acceptance of renewed permits. The poll showed “a majority opposed to the project.”
Ibrahim Geha, head of the Kfar Hazir municipal council, told L’OLJ the municipality rejects any reopening, in line with residents’ views.
He warned of fears that “rehabilitation” could become a pretext for expansion. “Opposition to the quarries is widespread in Koura,” he said.
Is resuming quarrying ‘vital’?
Jalil Darzi, CEO of the National Cement Company, said the company’s permit request complies with Decree 8803. “This decree grants 10-year permits for cement plant quarries, unlike the five-year permits for other sites,” he told L’OLJ.
He argued that appeals by environmental activists no longer apply because “these are no longer exceptional deadlines but regulatory permits.”
Darzi said operations will abide by all conditions required by the Environment Ministry, including limiting work to already degraded areas and systematically rehabilitating excavated zones — a process he said has already begun in some locations.
He described the resumption of quarrying as “vital” for the company, which is currently importing clinker, a key ingredient in cement, at substantial cost.
Municipality plans to resist
“I am fully aware of the opposition of the local authorities and environmentalists, and this echoes my own opposition to renewing these permits,” Elzein told L’OLJ.
She said quarry permits are issued not by the minister but by the Supreme Council for Quarries, which includes representatives from several ministries. “Given my principled position and that of the environment and urbanism department, the council met exceptionally — not under my chairmanship but that of the director general — and failed to reach a decision. The issue, therefore, had to be referred to the Cabinet, in accordance with the law.”
Elzein cited “intense lobbying” by cement companies, who cite losses from purchasing clinker and warn of possible layoffs. She said the Cabinet may approve the request, but if it does, her ministry will impose “very strict operating conditions, unlike in the past.”
If the government approves the permit on Thursday, Kfar Hazir’s leaders say they will fight it.
“We will stand up to this decision by all available means, including filing a complaint with the State Council,” Geha said.
