A couple of years ago, I was reading an article on how the notorious Saida garbage mountain was being transformed into a Green Park following a rehabilitation project led by The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health and the Municipality of Saida. The project came after the waste mountain stretched 55 meters high from the surrounding terrain and covered an area of 60,000m². Moreover, the dumpsite had no basal lingo barrier and the environmental repercussions were so severe they stretched all the way to Cyprus.

Unfortunately two years later, the sorting facility which was considered a bright example of solid waste management, is shutting down following protests held last week and waste is starting to accumulate again. From what I read and heard, the real problem is that the facility has been operating over capacity for quite some time as it has been receiving waste from Beirut, and was not subject to regular monitoring inspections. I found a couple of useful articles on that matter that I recommend you read [GreenArea] [Ecocentra].

I hope they figure things out before we get a new garbage mountain, especially that the last one hasn’t completed disappeared yet.