Lebanon still battling pollution

2007-01-22 09:15

Joelle Bassoul

Beirut - Six months after thousands of tons of fuel oil spilled into the Mediterranean when Israel bombed a Lebanese power plant, the waters are still spitting out black poison despite efforts to clean up the mess.

"The rain and the low tide have created new pollution zones," Ahmed Kojok of the Sea of Lebanon association told AFP.

On Beirut's sun-splashed Ramlet al-Bayda beach, a human chain passed buckets filled with large black chunks - mixtures of fuel oil, sand and debris - which were emptied by a volunteer into large white watertight bags.

"It's sad," muttered a fisherman who works for the association, running his fingers over dozens of seashells mucked together in a sticky glob.

The coast was polluted by around 15 000 tons of fuel oil after the Israeli military bombed Lebanon's southern Jiyeh power plant in mid-July during its 34-day offensive against Hezbollah.

Since then, local and international civic groups and the Lebanese environment ministry have been waging a long battle against the black sludge that seeped into the sea.

A recent report by the European Commission's monitoring and information centre said "virtually all free oil at sea or in the harbours and marinas had been recovered by the end of September (2006)". And the historic port of Byblos north of the capital has filled anew with fishermen.

But many beaches like Jiyeh and Ramlet al-Bayda continue to fight the pollution.

Greenpeace has described the spill, which polluted about 150km of the Lebanese coast, as an "underwater nightmare" and a "time bomb" because oil had sunk to the seabed. The environmental group has estimated it will take at least a year to clean.

- AFP