The sands of Jiyyeh

Environmentalists say theft of sand should stop
Groups say Country's coast could be stripped bare

More than 18 associations appealed to the president to stop the practice
By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Saturday, February 05, 2005

Environmentalists say theft of sand should stop

SIDON, Lebanon: More than 18 environmental associations urged President Emile Lahoud on Wednesday to help the theft of sand from the Jiyyeh area.

The associations included Greenpeace, the Association of Professional Divers, Green Line, Bahr Loubnan, Amwaj, Earth, Al-Marbah al-Akhdar, Byblos Ecologia, Nature without Frontiers and several others.

The environmental groups believe the sea and sand are natural resources, and therefore public property.

Mohammed Sarji, head of the Lebanese Association of Professional Divers, said on Wednesday that the little quantity of sand left on the shores of Jiyyeh is being stolen and sold in violation of the law.

He added that members of the association saw a tractor and four trucks on Tuesday transporting sand in violation of the decision by the Public Prosecutors' Office regarding this issue.

The association immediately notified the Public Prosecutors' Office, which then asked the Internal Security Forces (ISF) to stop the sand extraction at the concerned area.

In the name of all environmental associations, Sarji urged president Lahoud to stop the sand extraction while highlighting Lahoud's own interest in diving and environmental maritime issues.

"The Lebanese shore is not very rich in sand," said Sarji, "and when all this sand is taken out from the sea, the sea currents 'borrow' sand from the shore to fill out the huge basins that are formed, and so on and so forth, until the shore becomes almost bare of sand," he said.

Commenting on this issue, Beirut MP Mohammed Qabbani said the sand of Lebanon's shores was a "national treasure" that should be protected and not used for construction purposes.

"If there is a need for sand extraction from any location, as is the case today in Jiyyeh, that sand should be taken to shores in other locations because sand is very important for tourism, and is therefore an essential national treasury," he said.

In December of last year the associations petitioned that every contract signed between the Directorate General, maritime transportation and privately owned companies currently extracting the sand be broken, insisting that those companies did not have the right to sell the sand given it was public property. The sand extraction case was then referred to the judiciary.

Since September 2004, the Middle East Company has extracted sand from the sea in Jiyyeh using a permit from the Directorate General of Land and Sea Transport in order "to clean the Jiyyeh power plant area from sand and other substances."

The environmental associations issued a statement in December saying, "The contractor has been extracting sand during the night without any supervision from the ministry, adding that the pumps are working, even during the day, far from the locations defined in the permit."