Not that long ago, the city of Sidon (or Saida) in Lebanon moved its trash to the local Sidon dump, where the toxic landfill and trash site washed into the sea every winter. Sometimes dump trucks didn’t wait for the rains and dumped directly into the sea. Thanks to Saudi Arabia, which offered some $20 million USD to clean the Sidon dump, the deed is almost done.

Taking a cue from Israel in the south perhaps, the Sidon dump will be turned into a recreational area, much like Israel’s Hiriya garbage dump, and its landfill dump in Jaffa – both sites are now recreation spots for walking and picnicking.

The Sidon clean up is overseen by the United Nations Development Program, the Sidon Municipality and the Environment Ministry Lebanon.

Sidon is the third largest city in Lebanon.

The dump has been cleared of harmful gases, while garbage there has been seperated. A wave breaker has been installed to prevent winter’s stormy seas from reaching the dump. 

Some residents however, say the toxic fumes emanating from the clean up are worse than the dump site itself:

“36 year old Ahmad, who preferred not to give his real name, is a mechanic at the Industrial City and has lived near the waste-fill for most of his life. Almost one month ago, he moved out of his house and chose a location farther from the coast to protect his two young daughters from polluted air, which has been getting increasingly worse over the past two months.

He said this past August: “We don’t know the reasons behind the strong stench. We don’t know if it is dangerous to our health or not. But I felt the need to take my own precautions and moved out of the area. Many like me are following suit, but there are also many others who are financially incapable and are suffering extremely.”

As for the organic materials extracted from the waste, developers will be putting it aside to decompose for energy extraction purposes.

This video was taken before the clean up:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffvJcASvvAo[/youtube]

“The city will finally be able to get rid of its shameful garbage mountain and the site will be turned into an entertainment complex for its residents,” said UNDP resident representative Robert Watkins.

According to local media the landfill was established in 1982 and it contained somewhere between 50-60 percent of solid waste and 35-40 percent of biodegradable material.

Plans were made to close down the dump late 2012. Containing some two million cubic meters of waste, it would cave in during wet winter months and funnel garbage down to the sea and beaches of the city. Deadly fires took place there recently.

Anaerobic fermenting will produce energy from the site, much like Israel’s Hiriya garbage dump which produces biogas to power lighting there.

There are plans to build on Sidon (Saida) but local blogger Keep Lebanon Green thinks that it should be left alone once the clean up is done:

“Filling the sea with land, also known as “land reclamation” in order to build structures on it, has environmental consequences. It is a form of habitat destruction. Land reclamation disrupts eco-systems and kills marine life. What an environmental plan should focus on is rehabilitation, not using the site to build something new. We need to rehabilitate the polluted sea around the dump too, not destroy it by filling it with soil.

“Lebanon, it’s great that the dumpsite is finally going to be treated, but the land reclamation part of the plan has dire environmental consequences. Let us advocate for environmental rehabilitation of both the dump and the sea! We can do it, Lebanon!” the blogger writes.

More on garbage and pollution:
Pollution Costs Lebanon $500 Million a Year
Arrow Ecology Sorts Through Garbage for Gold
Going on a Picnic at Tel Aviv’s Garbage Mountain

The post Lebanon’s Toxic Sea-side Sidon Dump Gets Eco Makeover appeared first on Green Prophet.

We’ve written about Israel’s infamous garbage (sh*t) mountain and national “landmark” Hirira outside of Tel Aviv.

We learn that another large regional garbage mound, the Sidon Rubbish Dump or the Saida dump is attracting a lot of “attention” off Lebanon’s sea coast these days – and the “attention” is all bad. Or smelly, rather, reports the BBC: “It’s horrible isn’t it? You smell it before you can see it,” Mohammad, a fisherman, as his fishing boat nears it. It takes another 10 minutes for the source of the stench to appear- a giant mountain of rubbish, as tall as a four floor building. It seems to rise out of the sea outside one of Lebanon’s most ancient cities.

The Saida dump has been there since the 1982 war with Israel, when remains of buildings and other property destroyed during the war were dumped there. Later, personal garbage and other rubbish was dumped there as well, including items thrown out from local hospitals.

Mohammad, who blames the dump on his thinning fish catches, says the eyesore is also very dangerous from an ecological standpoint. Last year 150 tons from the mound ripped off and sank into the sea. Today some brave the stench and use it as a means to scrape together a living. But be careful, swimming near the Sidon dump can put you in the hospital; and avoid the medical syringes washing out with the tide.

In addition to construction wastes, medical trash, and garbage, all kinds of toxic materials get dumped there too. But according to people such as Mohammad Hamdan, a Palestinian refugee who makes a bare living by scavenging for bottles metals, and plastic materials in the dump the hospital wastes are the worst as “it full of syringes, blood, human flesh – even kidneys,” he claims.

Although solutions to this ecological nightmare are available, including moving the dump inland to another location (where it will pollute the ground water in the new location) the Sidon dump is now partially in the sea and could contaminate large sections of the Mediterranean coastline.

As noted in another article, at the environmental website Spacedaily.com Lebanon looses as much as $500 million or EU 350 million annually to pollution, much of it due to losses in the health, tourism and agricultural industries. Garbage mounds like the one outside Sidon create their share of this pollution, and contribute to global warming in Lebanon, which may cause temperatures to rise by as much as 2 degrees C in the next 40 years and by as much as 5 degrees C by the end of the century.

As to the future of the Sidon garbage mound, a lack of “political will,” due to the country’s divisive political system and weakness in the central government, there is no way of knowing if the mound will ever be moved. The plan (to move it) is in place, and money is there; the only thing that’s missing is a political decision. But until these politicians start thinking about the benefit of people and the ecosystem, this issue will not be solved,” says Mr Garabed Kazanjian, a campaigner for Greenpeace.

More on garbage and pollution:
Pollution Costs Lebanon $500 Million a Year
Arrow Ecology Sorts Through Garbage for Gold
Going on a Picnic at Tel Aviv’s Garbage Mountain

The post Lebanon’s Sidon Garbage Dump More Serious Than Just the Smell appeared first on Green Prophet.