Lebanese Kick up Stink over Smell Fix for Garbage Woes

Garbage piled on the streets of Beirut. (AFP file photo)
Garbage piled on the streets of Beirut. (AFP file photo)
TT
20

Lebanese Kick up Stink over Smell Fix for Garbage Woes

Garbage piled on the streets of Beirut. (AFP file photo)
Garbage piled on the streets of Beirut. (AFP file photo)

Sitting at a plastic table outside her flatbread sandwich shop in the Lebanese capital, Nadime Yazbeck says she wishes the government would deal with the stench from the local trash dump.

"They really need to find a solution to these smells," said the 66-year-old Beirut resident, in a spotless white t-shirt and hair net.

Four years after a garbage crisis sparked political protests in Lebanon, the stench of trash is back and government plans to quell the smell have only triggered demands for better waste management, said AFP.

In Yazbeck's neighborhood of Bourj Hammoud, a seaside landfill that reopened to solve the 2015 crisis will be full by the end of the summer.

Near the airport, another overwhelmed landfill is to start refusing waste from neighboring areas in protest.

On and off for more than a year, the acrid smell of decomposing refuse has wafted into homes and businesses in the capital.

Even kilometers away from landfills, residents have raced to close windows to keep out the stink.

Visitors to the tiny Mediterranean nation have been welcomed off flights by unpleasant odors drifting over the airport.

In June, Lebanon's environment ministry said it had asked an expert to look into the matter and help neutralize the smells.

Lebanese-French agronomy engineer Aime Menassa determined causes of the stench to include household waste, "badly stabilized compost", and sewage.

His report unleashed a wave of sarcasm online over a perceived outsider stating the obvious.

"Isn't there a Lebanese who can smell it?" one person asked on Twitter.

Odor suppression

Beyond being unpleasant, the smells also present potential health hazards.

This winter, researchers at the American University of Beirut measured the rate of hydrogen sulphide, a smelly gas produced by landfills, in the air in Bourj Hammoud.

Michele Citton, a waste and water expert at AUB, said the levels of the gas -- which has been correlated with possible negative health effects -- were higher than expected.

A 2018 study in northern China found children living near a landfill were more likely to have deficient immunity and impaired lung function, the latter strongly related to hydrogen sulphide.

But odor suppression is not a sustainable solution, Citton said.

"What these smells are saying to the world and to the community in Beirut is basically that there is a deep need to find alternative methods to solid waste management in Lebanon."

Multi-confessional Lebanon has been rocked by political crises in recent years, especially since the 2011 outbreak of war in neighboring Syria.

In 2015, a landfill closure caused trash to pile up in the streets, sparking protests against political leaders, including under the cry "You Stink".

The demonstrations have since died down, but mistrust in the ruling class -- that includes former warlords during the 1975-1990 civil conflict -- still runs high.

Menassa insists his offer to treat the smell is only meant to be a temporary solution, said AFP.

Under his plan, a "biodegradable" solution would be sprayed onto the surface or spread through mist into the air at three sites across the capital, he said.

Transforming smelly gas into minerals, the solution would clean garbage trucks traveling in and out of two sorting stations, and lessen the stench from the composting site near Bourj Hammoud.

Temporary solution?

But "the idea is not to mist forever", he said, of the odor-tackling practice that needs to be maintained 24/7 to be effective.

"The solution is selective rubbish collection... to avoid having to have to bury these huge volumes in the final landfill."

Experts say half of Lebanon's waste is organic, and could be better composted if separated out from recyclables at the household level.

Environment Minister Fady Jreissati, who came into office in January, says only eight percent of Lebanon's rubbish is recycled.

His plan for the next two years includes trying to encourage better rubbish sorting, and building a new composting plant near the airport by next spring, he told July's edition of economic magazine Le Commerce du Levant.

He also said a "credible option" would be to widen the Bourj Hammoud landfill -- but that would mean destroying an adjacent fishing port.

Activists, meanwhile, have protested plans to open incinerators in Beirut, which they fear will be badly managed and further pollute the atmosphere.

And as grey smog clings to the skyline, others have questioned the ministry halting air quality monitors due to budget cuts.

Claude Jabre, a You Stink activist who lives in Bourj Hammoud, denounced what he saw as vested business interests and a lack of political will to find alternative solutions.

"We have the energy and the expertise to create what's called a circular economy" aimed at minimizing waste, he said.

"Why can't we make profit in a way that doesn't damage the environment?"



Crops Wither in Sudan as Power Cuts Cripple Irrigation

FILED - 27 August 2024, Sudan, Omdurman: Young people walk along a street marked by destruction in Sudan. Photo: Mudathir Hameed/dpa
FILED - 27 August 2024, Sudan, Omdurman: Young people walk along a street marked by destruction in Sudan. Photo: Mudathir Hameed/dpa
TT
20

Crops Wither in Sudan as Power Cuts Cripple Irrigation

FILED - 27 August 2024, Sudan, Omdurman: Young people walk along a street marked by destruction in Sudan. Photo: Mudathir Hameed/dpa
FILED - 27 August 2024, Sudan, Omdurman: Young people walk along a street marked by destruction in Sudan. Photo: Mudathir Hameed/dpa

Hatem Abdelhamid stands amid his once-thriving date palms in northern Sudan, helpless as a prolonged war-driven power outage cripples irrigation, causing devastating crop losses and deepening the country's food crisis.

"I've lost 70 to 75 percent of my crops this year," he said, surveying the dying palms in Tanqasi, a village on the Nile in Sudan's Northern State.

"I'm trying really hard to keep the rest of the crops alive," he told AFP.

Sudan's agricultural sector -- already battered by a two-year conflict and economic crisis -- is now facing another crushing blow from the nationwide power outages.

Since the war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began in April 2023, state-run power plants have been repeatedly targeted, suffering severe damage and ultimately leaving farms without water.

Like most Sudanese farms, Abdelhamid's depends on electric-powered irrigation -- but the system has been down "for over two months" due to the blackouts.

Sudan had barely recovered from the devastating 1985 drought and famine when war erupted again in 2023, delivering a fresh blow to the country's agriculture.

Agriculture remains the main source of food and income for 80 percent of the population, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Now in its third year, the conflict has plunged more than half the population into acute food insecurity, with famine already taking hold in at least five areas and millions more at risk across conflict-hit regions in the west, center and south.

The war has also devastated infrastructure, killed tens of thousands of people, and displaced 13 million.

A 2024 joint study by the United Nations Development Programme and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) found that nearly a third of rural households have lost irrigation and water access since the war began.

Without electricity to power his irrigation system, Abdelhamid -- like thousands of farmers across the country -- was forced to rely on diesel-powered pumps.

But with fuel scarce and prices now more than 20 times higher than before the war, even that option is out of reach for many.

"I used to spend 10,000 Sudanese pounds (about four euros according to the black market rate) for irrigation each time," said another farmer, Abdelhalim Ahmed.

"Now it costs me 150,000 pounds (around 60 euros) because there is no electricity," he told AFP.

Ahmed said he has lost three consecutive harvests -- including crops like oranges, onions, tomatoes and dates.

With seeds, fertilizers and fuel now barely available, many farmers say they won't be able to replant for the next cycle.

In April, the FAO warned that "below average rainfall" and ongoing instability were closing the window to prevent further deterioration.

A June study by IFPRI also projected Sudan's overall economic output could shrink by as much as 42 percent if the war continues, with the agricultural sector contracting by more than a third.

"Our analysis shows massive income losses across all households and a sharp rise in poverty, especially in rural areas and among women," said Khalid Siddig, a senior research fellow at IFPRI.