Arslan Warns: We Will be Watching Each Stone Thrown in Costa Brava
MP Talal Arslan stated on Sunday that the landfill plan to solve the months long trash management crisis will “explode” in the face of the government, stressing that opening the Costa Brava landfill does not mean that it will be used “randomly.”
“The government plan to open landfills will explode in its face. The state cannot act randomly in using the Costa Brava landfill because we will be watching each stone that will be thrown there,” said Arslan in a press conference.
Arslan's comments came following a lengthy cabinet session on Saturday that approved to establish two landfills including the Costa Brava and reactivate Naameh's temporarily as part of a four-year plan to resolve the country’s eight-month-long waste problem.
The approval faces the rejection of civil society activists who called for a general strike.
The MP has long protested against opening a landfill in Costa Brava, he stressed:"The government is a failure by all political means. It has given the citizens a choice between opening landfills or leaving the trash in the streets,” pointing out that the landfills are located in remote areas.
Information Minister Ramzi Jreij said following the cabinet meeting Saturday that two landfills – in Bourj Hammoud and Nahr al-Ghadir areas – will be established, and the Naameh landfill will reopen for two months to receive waste that has accumulated in makeshift dumps.
A landfill’s location in the Shouf and Aley areas will be determined later following consultations with the local municipalities, said Jreij in his press briefing.
Expressing dismay and disapproval at the cabinet's decision, Arslan said: “Since day one, I called for a group of experts to oversee and develop radical solutions for the trash file but no one listened,” stressing that even in the trash file some politicians fight over profit shares.
Lebanon's trash management crisis erupted when the biggest landfill of Naameh south of Beirut was closed.
The trash is being dumped in makeshift areas, in forests and near river banks.
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