Waste Management in Lebanon Essay Example

The issue of waste disposal is an immediate issue in Lebanon. According to Kinab and Khoury (2015), the country generates approximately 6500 tons of solid waste daily. The solid waste comprises of about 52.5% of organic matter, 36.5% plastic, paper, cardboard, glass, and metal while 11% consists of inert and other materials. Ikhlayel (2018) explain that Lebanon uses some methods to dispose of the wastes. Some of these methods include using sanitary landfills, dumpsites and material recovery which are sorted and recycled or reused, or converted to organic fertilizers. Lebanon also generates approximately 40,000 tons of harmful solid wastes annually. These include chemical wastes, hazardous industrial wastes, expired solid materials and drugs, electronic waste, healthcare waste which are hazardous and infectious, used tires, expired and used batteries, various types of sludge among various others. Solid waste management is an essential issue which is critical in the protection of the environment and safeguarding human health.

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The Minister of Interior and Municipality is mandated to perform the role of managing and controlling waste and ensuring that Lebanese citizens live in a habitable and clean environment. However, the ministry and the municipality experiences the challenge of inadequate financial resources and lack of organization. The case hinders their effective performance in meeting their mandate as a ministry. There are also increasing solid wastes which are discarded in open dumps and landfills.

According to Kinab and Khoury (2015), the Lebanese Solid waste crisis emerged on July 2015 when the main landfill at Naameh was closed. The closure ended the 17-year long emergency plan. The closure stopped the solid waste collection, and the country lacked a solution to solve the solid waste issue. There was also no political consensus to address the solid waste problem. Concerning this, Lebanon experienced an eight-month crisis where the Lebanese citizens were forced to cope with the mountainous wastes while they waited for the government to come up with an abstract solution to the solid waste problem. It is this crisis that prompted some local initiatives to innovate ways of dealing with the solid waste menace. The local efforts included the civil society, non-governmental organizations, and private companies.

Generation of solid wastes emerges from lifestyles, human activities and environmental awareness (Waste Management Conflict, 2019). Other causes also include growing consumption due to rising population, rapid urbanization, and limited environmental awareness. In Lebanon; there are also inadequate policies and regulation of solid waste through legislation. The political elite has also failed to reach a consensus on the critical environmental issues concerning waste management in Lebanon. Lack of political consensus has made the management of the environment to be challenging because the provided solutions are usually not ecologically and politically acceptable. Solid waste management requires leadership commitment and consensus of various stakeholders such as politicians, scholars, activists, artists, scientists among others.

In my opinion, in as much as it is everyone's responsibility to be environmentally conscious and protect the environment, the federations and the municipalities are also primarily responsible for the treatment, collection, and disposal of solid wastes. The federations and the municipal also have the mandate to assume all the related costs. The ministry of Interior and Municipality have made attempts to come up with plans to help solve the waste management issue. However, the Government of Lebanon has been a hindering factor in preventing various Lebanese municipalities to engage in proper investment in environmental management. However, the municipalities receive budgetary allocations and allowances from the International Monetary Fund since waste disposal in Lebanon is a globally recognized issue which requires urgent action. There are also other international organizations such as Italian Cooperation, European Union, USAID, UKAID, Spanish Agency and others who have made attempts to provide financial and technical support to help solve the waste management issue. I believe that the provided support is essential. However, at some point, it is notable that there are usually various delays which distract the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities' efforts to come up with an abstract plan to manage solid wastes and also divert the essential resources which are required to ensure the implementation of the plan.

Azzi (2017) asserts that there are legislations which are related to solid waste management. However, I feel that some of these legislations that the government initiates are either incomplete or outdated. There are also possibilities of the government failing to involve the critical stakeholders during the formulation of such policies. It is because of these reasons that these legislations and policies fail to address the waste management issue in Lebanon, rendering it to remain an issue which the government initiates plans every day, but does nothing. Most of the policies also fail to address waste management issue directly but approach it with other social and environmental issues such as natural sites and public health.

Conclusion

As the Minister of Interior and Municipalities, I would address the issue by ensuring that every municipality manages its waste. The municipalities would also receive funding directly from International Monetary Fund to implement their environmental programs. I would also recommend the government to allocate funds annually to every municipality (Approximately 8 million) to help municipalities open their landfills and carry out development programs about solid waste management.

References

Azzi, E. (2017). Waste Management Systems in Lebanon: The benefits of a waste crisis for improvement of practices.

Ikhlayel, M. (2018). Development of management systems for sustainable municipal solid waste in developing countries: A systematic life cycle thinking approach. Journal of Cleaner Production, 180, 571-586.

Kinab, E., & Khoury, G. (2015). Management of olive solid waste in Lebanon: from mill to stove. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 52, 209-216.

Waste Management Conflict (Starting January 25, 2014). (2019). Civil Society Knowledge Centre. Retrieved 21 January 2019, from https://civilsociety-centre.org/timelines/31033