Red and polluted waters from waste at the Litani, in Bednayel, on Dec. 9, 2025. (Credit: Sarah Abdallah)
BEIRUT — The Litani River Authority announced Thursday that it had sent urgent letters to the interior, industry, and agriculture ministries calling for immediate action after pollution occurred earlier this week in Bednayel, in the Bekaa.
Part of the river there was contaminated by blood discharged from several local slaughterhouses.
In these letters, the authority requested the ministries to "close the offending slaughterhouses, prohibit all new discharges into the river, and prosecute those responsible according to legal procedures," the statement said.
"Untreated blood and animal waste were dumped in the river on Dec. 9, in violation of environmental and industrial laws, while foot-and-mouth disease is spreading, increasing health and epidemiological risks for livestock and surrounding communities," the Authority stressed.
The Bekaa investigations unit had raided several slaughterhouses in Bednayel, arrested the owner of one, and carried out examinations in another, the authority said Tuesday.
The Litani stretches about 140 kilometers from its source in the Bekaa to the Lebanese coast. Pollution levels in this waterway have been high for years, the result of a combination of factors — ineffective sanitation networks, flawed governance, non-compliance with regulations, and irresponsibility by industries set up nearby.
In November 2018, the industry ministry shut down dozens of unlicensed factories polluting the Litani during a campaign.
