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Oil spilled from IAF bombed power plant pollutes Lebanon's coast
By Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent and the Associated Press A south Lebanon power plant that was knocked down by Israel Air Force planes some two weeks ago caused a massive oil spill along the Beirut's coast. Lebanon has made an urgent request to the UN in recent days for assistance in the ecological crisis. Fishermen say hundreds of oil-coated fish have been washed ashore in what is the country's worst ever environmental disaster. Lebanon approached the UN because it doesn't have the means to treat an environmental crisis of this magnitude. The UN has developed in recent years a contingency plan, involving the cooperation between several countries, to treat this kind of pollution. "Countries such as Algeria and Cyprus as well as the European Union have expressed willingness to give immediate aid. However, clean-up activity will not be able to begin until the military operation ceases. In general, we are talking about clean-up by hand along wide stretches of coast," said Louisa Koalsimona of the UN emergency response program in Malta. About 130 kilometers of Lebanon's shores had been affected by the spill of at least 15,000 tons of oil from the Jiyeh plant, about 20 kilometers south of Beirut, the city's mayor, Abdel Monem Ariss, said Friday. The plant was in flames after it was hit in IAF air raids, cutting off electricity to many areas in the capital and south Lebanon. Ariss said the oil spill so far covers shores about 45 kilometers north of Beirut and 85 kilometers to the south - as far south as the port city of Sidon and as far as Shakaa in the north. "Depending on how the wind is blowing, I think many shores will be soiled with this oil spill," Ariss told The Associated Press. He said there were reports of the spill reaching outside the Syrian harbor of Latakia, about 120 kilometers north of Beirut. A shipment of 10 trucks from Kuwait containing material and equipment was to arrive Friday night via Syria to help contain the spill, but crews could not get to the shores to start cleanup work because of the hostilities, Ariss said. "It's going to take a long time to clean it because most of our shores are rocky shores and when the oil sticks to the rock you have to scrub it [by hand]," he said. Fishermen on Beirut's only sandy public beach of Ramlet al-Baida said the black slick appeared about 10 days ago, accompanied by a strong smell of fuel. Some residents have said they had trouble breathing. Fisherman Salim Yazmanji, 32, said as many as 100 fish can wash up on every "I have nothing but the sea," Yazmanji said. "If you take the sea from a fisherman, he will die, like the fish." Ariss said it appeared other factors also contributed to the environmental disaster - a leak from an Egyptian commercial boat that was apparently hit by a Hezbollah missile off Beirut, another leak from an Israeli gunboat also hit by Hezbollah, as well as effluent from a cement factory in northern Lebanon that was attacked by Israeli forces. "It's a little bit more than speculation. There are targets we knew contained oil and spilled; they received direct hits, some of them burned," he said. The Green Line Association, a Lebanese environmental group, said in a press release that four of the six fuel tanks at Jiyeh's power plant have burned completely, while the fifth, which is the main cause of the spill, was still burning. It said the Lebanese Environment Ministry was worried that the sixth tank, which is underground, will explode. Ariss said if the spill is not contained soon it will spread to the rest of the Mediterranean. "I think there will be more than Lebanon that is going to be involved in this oil spill," he said. "I think the marine life has been heavily affected and will continue to be affected as long as the oil remains in the waters and on the shores," he added. (Originally published in Haaretz http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/744026.html ) ******************* Fair Use Notice: The above newspaper article is copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. |