Saida begins clearing accumulated waste after treatment plant reopens

BEIRUT — Waste collection resumed across Saida on Sunday after the city’s solid waste treatment plant reopened and began receiving garbage trucks again, ending a days-long crisis, according to the Saida municipality.

NTCC, the company contracted to collect and transport waste, began clearing garbage accumulated across the city, in coordination with the municipality’s emergency teams and maintenance crews.

The company managing the plant had closed it for several days in protest of not getting paid for over two years. Overnight into Friday, unidentified people overturned trash cans outside the city’s municipal headquarters in protest.

The plant, which has operated since 2013, has frequently drawn criticism over malfunctions and has never fully resolved Saida’s waste problem. The old coastal dump, rehabilitated in the early 2010s, has since been replaced by an equally imposing landfill.

The closure was particularly problematic because garbage cannot be transported elsewhere and must pass through the treatment plant before reaching the landfill.

The municipality said it had "drawn up an emergency plan to deal with the large quantities of waste that accumulated while the plant was not receiving trucks," adding that collection and removal from the city’s streets would be treated as a "top priority."

The reopening of the plant followed efforts by Saida’s municipal council and the heads of municipalities belonging to the Saida-Zahrani Municipal Union, in coordination with judicial, ministerial and security authorities, according to the municipality.

The municipality described the reopening as an "urgent and necessary measure" to protect public health and the environment.

It also pledged to continue working with relevant authorities to find a "fundamental and sustainable solution" to waste management, ensuring the regular collection and proper treatment of waste and preventing similar crises from recurring in Saida and municipalities across the union.