Lebanon's Garbage Threatens Flight Safety

Public Works Minister Ghazi Zoaiter and the former head of Lebanon's Civil Aviation have warned against dumping waste near Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport.

Zoaiter told An Nahar daily published on Wednesday that he has sent memos to the ministers of interior, defense and environment to inform them about the dangers of dumping waste in the airport's vicinity.

Waste collector Sukleen and the municipalities of Beirut's southern suburbs and Shuwaifat have been dumping garbage near the airport's fence.

Zoaiter has held the three ministries the responsibility in any dereliction that would put the safety of flights in danger.

The former general manager of Civil Aviation, Hamdi Shawqi, also told An Nahar that the waste being dumped near the airport would reach levels higher than the elevation of the tarmac.

The garbage also changes the temperatures near the runway. “Airplanes are directly influenced by the climate,” he warned.

The dumping of the waste began when the landfill in the town of Naameh south of Beirut was closed on July 17.

Since then, mountains of garbage piled up in Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

The gridlocked government postponed further discussion of the crisis until Thursday.

Although a temporary solution has been found to collect waste, controversy has erupted over the dumping sites of the garbage.