Step into pollution hell and don’t forget your mask

June 7, 2009 by RootSpaceOnline

By Nadine Ghaith

Looking into Bourj Hammoud from over the bridge is a flashback to 19th century industrial Europe: it is black, heavily polluted and just plain depressing. Here is dump for neighboring towns to abuse; a place that emerged from nothing and still fights on, a welcoming host gone bad situation.

Lebanon has been a gracious host to many peoples and cultures. The country is vibrant with the colors of diversity, and everywhere you go here the story is different. But the story of the Armenians that cluster around the eastern side of Beirut especially cannot be silenced anymore. Bourj Hamoud is perhaps one of the most densely populated cities in the Middle East and the overwhelming majority of its inhabitants are Armenian. In almost a hundred years since coming here the Armenians have established a refuge of their own, but things don’t look so good.

The Armenians came in 1915 to escape the tyranny of the Turks and settled in the land when it looked little more than a swamp. Over time the Armenians have put up a city, mostly in small 3 or 4 story buildings built over commercial stores. The picture of Bourj Hamoud at the start of the 20th century and 21st century is overwhelmingly different. The sorry looking tin houses have evolved into sorry looking apartments but despite everything, the area is a productive bustling stretch of honest working people who just want to get by.

There are a few problems that hinder the place however, these are issues that run deep and are being ignored. The Bourj Hammoud area is characterized by the Beirut River, an immobile almost dried up stream that runs from middle Metn (around Broummana and Beit Meri), all along Bourj Hamoud and eventually deposits into the Bourj Hamoud shore. According to the police section of the area’s municipality the river causes no threat to the locals. Captain Elias who deals with all real estate violations in the area reported from the police section of the municipality saying that “the river is clean, would not a running river be clean?” He went on to explain that cleanup sessions are frequent and the real cause of any bad smells/pollution in the area is the Beirut slaughter house located in the Karantina area, next to the forum de Beyrouth.

A more informed source related a very different account of the river. Mr. Raffi Kokoghlanian (only known as Raffi Geuvoghlanian within Bourj Hamoud) is the deputy mayor and has been following up on the matter for a long time. Mr. Kokoghlanian told me that the river has many problems. For one thing many towns in the region have small networks for sewage treatment and thus wastes from Broummana to Sin el Fil to Mar Elias and many others find themselves in the river. That is not to mention what gets thrown in by random passers. The river is host to 2,200,000 people’s wastes. The river is also stagnant unlike what Elias said. It doesn’t flow and it’s dried up most of the summer months. Another problem with the river is the flooding that affects mostly the homes and stores next to the river. The municipality explained that no flooding has taken place since 2000 because that is when they enlarged the networks. Before then the water would go up to your car window during the wet winter season. The only time flooding did occur after 2000 was in 2005 when a bridge, during very heavy storms, broke and closed up the river passage.

The flooding problem is not totally fixed however, Raffi explained that the river eventually gets clotted when it reaches the shore as the waves gather sand which has amounted to a sand mountain that blocks the way. It doesn’t take an expert to know that there are health hazards ailing the Beirut River however. Eliane Bassil, a mother of three from Ashrafiyeh has taken over her deceased husband’s coffee store in Bourj Hamoud. Her little coffee shop is located at the very start of Armenia Street and she crosses the bridge over the river everyday to get to work. “I have to put my hand over my nose and stop breathing as I cross” she explains and covers her nose to show me. Many locals feel the same way, the river smells and denying it is unreasonable.

There was an agreement that took place in 2008 to stop anyone throwing dirty water or sewage into any river. This was signed by many European and Arabic countries. Lebanon was among the countries that signed this agreement but unlike the others does not abide by it because it cannot afford to. To find sewage alternatives is too expensive.

If the cause of bad smells in the area was only limited to the river it would be half as bad, but there is much more to be said about the slaughterhouse that spreads the stink from Sin el Fil to Ashrafiyeh. The slaughterhouse is where cows are slaughtered for meat but there is crisis over what to do with the bones and other wastes that are left behind. According to the municipality the bones are burned. Samir who shares the neighboring store to Eliane’s and her friend for years remarks “no one really knows when they burn the whole thing is undercover, but usually you can tell when the smells get worse”.

“The way to the slaughterhouse is easy, just follow the smell” says the first man I stop on the Dora highway to inquire for directions. The place is inaccessible without a license, the gateman, who preferred to remain unnamed, can’t let me in but he does explain that no burning takes place, the bones are all grinded and a foreign company comes and takes the grinded material outside the country. The name of this company he claims he doesn’t know, he who sits at the gate and lets vehicles in and out. This must be a company that saves money and doesn’t produce its logo on the shipping vehicles.

Perhaps closer to the truth is Mr. Kokoghlanian account which is a compromise between that of the municipality’s and that of the slaughterhouse staff. The bones are both grinded and burned which is still unhealthy; there is a safe and profitable solution however. They should cook the grinded discharge at very high pressure so that it becomes chemically harmless and then sold as fertilizer for plants. The slaughterhouse was supposed to be a temporary settlement; it’s been a temporary settlement for the last   15 or 20 years and will continue to be “temporary” in the next 20 or 30 years as Kokoghlanian says. In an undetermined fate sits a slaughterhouse with solid liquid and gaseous discharge, the gas is just let out into the air. If you visit the slaughterhouse it will take you a week to wash the smell of your cloths, it’s so polluted it clings to you and no one is doing any thing about it.

A Sukleen plant for recycling is located where the river discharges. This plant is illegal but the municipality will deny it being so. This plant is also affected by the river’s flooding that go up to 6 meters past the walls of the plant.

Environmental issues in Lebanon can be picked out of a hat. The Bourj Hammoud scene is only one scenario, other issues arise everywhere else in Lebanon and all we can do is watch. The ministry of environment is the poorest and smallest one in Lebanon. In developed countries it is given the priority and here nobody wants it. There are great plans for pollution issues in Lebanon but they only look good on paper, no money is being allocated for such changes. We would do well to tip the scales; it’s for our own good in the end.

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