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Massive environmental damage in Lebanon

Wael Hmaidan

Israeli attacks have killed civilians and destroyed infrastructure; they have also annihilated the environment.

THERE IS a beach in Lebanon called Ramlet el-Beida, which is Arabic for "the white sands." Today, the 1.5-km beach is covered with black oil, killing and polluting everything it touches. A group of environmental activists, including myself, have been assessing the beach for the last three weeks to evaluate the extent of the spill on the Lebanese shores. Every time we go, our eyes fill with tears. The tears might also have been due to the nauseating smell of the oil. No one knows. The result is the same, though.

The Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed civilians and destroyed infrastructure, but they have also annihilated the environment. Four weeks ago, an Israeli air raid on the Jiyeh power plant, south of Beirut, led to a 15,000 tonnes of oil spilling into the Mediterranean Sea.

What first appeared to be a small contamination of a sandy beach in Beirut turned out to be the worst environmental crisis in Lebanon's history, now affecting more than 100 km of its coast — from Jiyeh in the south to Chekka in the north. And this catastrophe has become regional. Syria has also reported oil hitting its shores, while huge oil carpets now moving slowly towards Turkey may also hit Cyprus and Greece if winds and currents are unfavourable.

The danger is that, almost a month after the start of the spill, no clean-up operations have even started. Each day that the clean-up is delayed, the oil settles deeper into the sand, rocks, and seabed. This will not only make the clean-up much more difficult, but will increase the damage to the environment exponentially.

The situation cannot wait any longer. The oil is highly toxic and will kill all marine life in the vicinity. It will build up in the marine ecosystem and we will feel its effect for years to come. Several spawning and nursery areas of coastal fish have been decimated, and this will affect the future livelihood of fishermen. At this time of the year, turtle eggs start to hatch, and all baby turtles will need to reach deep waters as fast as possible. But if they are hampered by oil they will surely die.

The cost of the clean-up and environmental impact has been estimated to be more than $200 million. Ceasefire or no ceasefire, the clean-up must start now. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

(Wael Hmaidan is coordinator of the oil spill working group for Lebanese environmental NGOs.)

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