International experts to assess environmental damage from war
Daily Star staff
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
BEIRUT/NAIROBI: An international team of experts will begin an assessment
Tuesday of the environmental damage in Lebanon caused by the recent conflict. A
press released issued by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said
Monday the team, led by and working in close cooperation with the Lebanese
authorities, will be visiting and sampling sites thought to present potential
risks to human health, wildlife and the wider environment.
These include the Jiyyeh power plant 28 kilometers south of Beirut which
discharged an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 tons of fuel oil into the
Mediterranean after being hit in mid-July; Rafik Hariri International Airport,
where fuel tanks were set alight as a result of repeated bombing; and the
Maliban glass factory in the Bekaa Valley, destroyed by an air raid on July 19.
The team also plans to assess pollution risks at many damaged drinking-water,
sewage-treatment and hospital-facility sites.
Achim Steiner, UN undersecretary general and UNEP executive director, said:
"There is an urgent need to assess the environmental legacy of the recent
conflict and put in place a comprehensive clean-up of polluted and
health-hazardous sites."
The decision to undertake a post-conflict assessment follows a request in early
August from the Environment Ministry.
Steiner said that the UNEP "expects to have a comprehensive report on sites and
locations in need of decontamination and clean up before the end of the year. -
The Daily Star
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