Quarries Still in Action - I for one welcome our new corrupt overlords

Lebanon: Quarries continue to damage the environment

December 9, 2005

For years, Lebanon has been rebuilding its infrastructure and reconstructing its buildings with the aid of hundreds of unorganized rock crushers, stone quarries and sand mines.

This has taken a heavy toll on the environment, leading to the pollution of ground and surface water resources, destruction of natural habitats and vegetation and a severe impact on soil stability and water resources; to name but some of the damage caused.

Environment Minister Yaacoub Sarraf supported these facts with figures during a recent conference in Beirut. Sarraf said that " a study carried out in June 2004 shows that Lebanon loses LL25 billion yearly because of degradation caused by quarries."
Nevertheless, work in many quarries and crushers resumed recently after the Minister of Interior Hassan Sabaa gave administrative extensions to 320 quarries and crushers to carry on their activities based on a decision taken by the Cabinet on September 6.

This decision was staunchly denounced by local environmental NGOs, who were especially outraged as it saw the reversal of a decision taken by the Cabinet in 1996 to stop work in quarries and crushers until the sector is more carefully planned. Contacted by The Daily Star on Wednesday, Sabaa refused to comment on this issue.

Under the " alibi of administrative extensions" , activities in two of the most threatening quarries in Lebanon, located in Zabbougha and Abu Nijan, have restarted, according to Mahmoud Ahmadieh, president of Nature Without Borders, a local environmental organization.

Criticizing politicians for not reacting to this " natural catastrophe" , Ahmadieh said " studies have long ago proved that these quarries pollute the water of the Jeita spring which partly provides potable water in Beirut."

He explained that arguments given by officials to justify giving extensions to quarries usually rely on the claim that a national master plan for managing quarries has not yet been approved by the government. This plan is supposed to organize the whole sector of quarries.

" We have been waiting for this plan, which was realized by the private sector in 1997, for the past seven years to be approved by politicians. It is unacceptable that it has not been agreed on yet because of the political spoil sharing among the countries sects," he said.

Ahmadieh called on Sarraf to make a " bold decision" and assert his authority as the head of the Higher National Council for Quarries by saying " no" to quarries.

Normally, this council, formed by officials from different ministries, is the only authority which is entitled to grant quarries approval and make sure that rehabilitation plans for these quarries are taken into account.

But the Cabinet, for economic reasons, can give the Interior Ministry the authority to allow quarries to extend their activities without referring to the National Council for Quarries.

Official sources at the Ministry of the Environment said that Sarraf, who was against the extension, sent a letter to Sabaa to ask him to stop work in the quarries.

While only 55 quarries are licensed in Lebanon, around 1,000 have been established illegally in the past years, sources at the Environment Ministry said.

" Unfortunately the monitoring of quarries which is carried by the Interior Ministry is insufficient and lacks professionalism," Ahmadieh said.

For Mounir Bou Ghanem, the head of the Association for Forest Development and Conservation, mismanagement associated with high demand for sand and gravel has brought about the decision to allow quarries to resume their activities.

Meanwhile, the next issue remains: Are the damages caused by quarries reparable?

Before addressing the next series of questions of how, when and by whom the quarries will be rehabilitated, the ministry launched last week a two-and-a-half-year project to assess the legal, administrative and financial barriers to rehabilitation.

One of the aims of this project, co-financed by the European Commission, is to carry out a full survey of all the licensed and unlicensed quarries operating in Lebanon, the manager of the project, Hassan Bitar said.

" We would like after the survey to set scientifically our priorities of which quarries to rehabilitate first," he said.

At the end of the survey, a database of all the quarries including administrative and geological parameters in addition to the environmental and social impact will be available on the website of the Environment Ministry, added Bitar.

The development of a national rehabilitation plan for quarries will follow the project to reduce or partly repair the environmental damages caused by quarries, Bitar assured.

" The rehabilitation of quarries is very costly, therefore financial mechanisms and economic incentives should be found," he said adding that costs of rehabilitation will be divided between the ministry, international donors and the owners of quarries.

Thirty months from now, a national rehabilitation plan for quarries will hopefully see the light, but its endorsement and implementation will again necessitate serious commitment from the part of politicians.

Copyright Daily Star