Lebanon Sees Environmental Devastation
By BASSEM MROUE
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 1, 2006; 2:02 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080100672.htmlBEIRUT, Lebanon -- Endangered turtles die shortly after hatching from
their eggs. Fish float dead off the coast. Flaming oil sends waves of
black smoke toward the city.
In this country of Mediterranean beaches and snowcapped mountains, Israeli
bombing that caused an oil spill has created an environmental disaster.
And cleanup cannot start until the fighting stops, the U.N. says.
World attention has focused on the hundreds of people who have died in the
3-week-old conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The environmental damage
has attracted little attention but experts warn the long-term effects
could be devastating.
Some 110,000 barrels of oil poured into the Mediterranean two weeks ago
after Israeli warplanes hit a coastal power plant. One tank is still
burning, sending thick black smoke across the country.
Compounding the problem is an Israeli naval blockade and continuing
military operations that have made any cleanup impossible. And
environmental officials say the longer the problem is allowed to go
unchecked, the greater the lasting damage.
"The immediate impact can be severe but we have not been able to do an
immediate assessment," said U.N. Environment Program executive director
Achim Steiner in Geneva. "But the longer the spill is left untreated, the
harder it will be to clean up."
The oil so far has slicked about one-third of Lebanon's coast, a 50-mile
stretch centered on the Jiyeh plant 12 miles south of Beirut, said the
country's environment minister, Yaacoub Sarraf. It has also drifted out
into the Mediterranean, already hitting neighboring Syria.
Experts warn Cyprus, Turkey and even Greece could be affected.
Sarraf said Israeli planes "purposely hit the tanks which are the closest
to the sea," and knocked out the berms designed to prevent any ruptured
tanks from sending oil flowing into the waters.
"Chances are, our whole marine ecosystem facing the Lebanese shoreline is
already dead," Sarraf said. "What is at stake today is all marine life in
the eastern Mediterranean."
Israel's Environmental Affairs ministry declined comment, referring
questions to the Foreign Ministry, which did not immediately return phone
calls.
Lebanon, whose flag features a cedar tree and which is known by many as
Green Lebanon for its forested mountains, is one of the few countries in
the Arab world that pays attention to pollution. Minibuses that run on
diesel have been banned, while factories are forced to abide by strict
rules.
Now, large parts of the country's sandy and rocky beaches, visited in the
past by hundreds of thousands of tourists each year, are covered with
thick black oil. Many fishermen have been forced out of business, and
people are getting scared to eat fish. Baby turtles, usually born in late
summer, die after they swim into the polluted water shortly after hatching
from eggs.
Syria was already experiencing similar problems, said Hassan Murjan, who
heads the environment department in the Syrian city of Tartous.
"The oil pollution has caused serious environmental damage because our
coast is rocky and this is very dangerous for marine life," Murjan told
the official news agency SANA.
The first country to rush help to Lebanon was Kuwait, which suffered a
similar disaster during the 1991 Gulf War. But three truckloads of cleanup
supplies the country sent in are stuck in Beirut, with crews waiting for
the fighting to wane before beginning work, said the capital's mayor,
Abdel Monem Ariss.
"We have no access to Lebanon territorial waters," Sarraf said. "This
means that we are already 10 days delayed and in terms of oil pollution,
10 days is a century."
Three local environmental organizations demanded a cease-fire to no avail.
"Cleanup operations should start as soon as possible; otherwise, most of
the damage will be irreversible," warned Wael Hmaidan, head of the
assessment group on the ground. "The more time we allow the oil to settle
into the sand, rocks and seabed, the harder it will be to clean it up."
Sarraf estimated it will cost $30 million to $50 million to clean up the
shorelines, and possibly ten times that much for the entire effort.
Optimistic assessments suggest it will take at least six months for the
shore cleanup and up to 10 years for "the reestablishment of the ecosystem
of the eastern Mediterranean as it was two weeks ago," he said.
In Geneva, the UNEP's Steiner said the agency has teams on standby to move
to Lebanon as soon as the conditions permit.
"Oil and marine diversity do not mix well," Steiner said. "We are
immediately concerned for marine life in the area."
Sarraf likened the disaster to a spill off France in 1999, when an oil
tanker split in two and dumped 70,000 barrels of oil into the Atlantic.
But he said this case is complicated by the burning tank and the inability
of cleanup crews to begin work.
"We are facing a much more critical problem, he said. "I say imagine you
having your kid sick, knowing that he is sick, and not being able to bring
a physician to examine him and to know what is the disease before you
start treating him. This is what we are facing."
___
Associated Press correspondent Frank Jordans contributed to this report
from Geneva.
© 2006 The Associated Press
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