Saida overwhelmed by trash; mayor urges government action

For the past three days, Saida's only waste treatment plant has been closed because the company managing it has not been paid for more than two years. Garbage bins are overflowing in the streets, angering residents. Overnight Thursday into Friday, unidentified people overturned trash cans outside the city’s municipal headquarters in protest.

At a news conference Friday morning, Saida Mayor Mustafa Hijazi reminded residents that the municipality had tried to avert the crisis by using law enforcement to force the plant to reopen and accept waste. But with workers on strike, trash is piling up at the site, and the company’s yard is full.

The plant has operated since 2013 but has often drawn criticism for malfunctions. It has never fully resolved the city’s waste problem, and the old coastal dump, treated in the early 2010s, has been replaced by an equally imposing landfill. The plant’s closure is especially problematic because garbage cannot be transported elsewhere: It must pass through the site before reaching the landfill.

Contacted by L’Orient-Le Jour, Hijazi blamed the plant’s managers and IBC, the company that closed the site without warning, as well as the Finance Ministry, which failed to fulfill its promise to pay the company.

“Workers haven’t been paid since 2024, and the plant hasn’t received its payments. I understand their anger, but it’s important to realize that Saida’s environment and the health of local residents are at stake,” he said angrily. He also noted that waste transport company NTCC has not been paid by the state for nearly two years.

“Why is Saida being treated with so little concern when it is the capital of South Lebanon and is hosting as many displaced people as any city during this crisis?” he asked, expressing outrage.

Hijazi called on the government to honor its commitments by paying both companies and forming a team to oversee the plant and improve its performance, as stipulated in an April 2026 government resolution on a sustainable waste management plan for the city.

For now, he said, the situation remains dire.

“Trash is in the streets, and the city’s appearance is marred by the landfill,” he said.