A ceasefire is no longer enough -- it is time to call for war crimes
tribunals for Israel's leadership and war reparations, from Israel to Lebanon and Palestine for infrastructure repair and the clean-up of its devastated environment and coastline.
_________________________________________________________
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/29/world/middleeast/29environment.html
July 29, 2006
Environment
Casualties of War: Lebanon’s Trees, Air and Sea
By HASSAN M. FATTAH
JIYEH, Lebanon, July 28 — As Israel continues the bombing campaign that
has turned parts of Lebanon into rubble, environmentalists are warning
of widespread and lasting damage.
Spilled and burning oil, along with forest fires, toxic waste flows and
growing garbage heaps have gone from nuisances to threats to people and
wildlife, they say, marring a country traditionally known for its clean
air and scenic greenery. Many of Lebanon’s once pristine beaches and
much of its coastline have been coated with a thick sludge that threatens
marine life.
As smoke billowed overhead on Friday, turning day into dusk, Ali Saeed,
a resident, recounted how war has changed this small industrial town
about 15 miles south of Beirut.
Most people have left, he said. It is virtually impossible to drive on
the roads, and almost everyone hides behind sealed windows.
“There’s nowhere to run,” Mr. Saeed said, showing off the black
speckles on his skin that have turned everything white here into gray. “It’s
dripping fuel from the sky.”
A large oil spill and fire caused by Israeli bombing have sent an oil
slick traveling up the coast of Lebanon to Syria, threatening to become
the worst environmental disaster in the country’s history and engulfing
this town in smoke.
“The escalating Israeli attacks on Lebanon did not only kill its
civilians and destroy its infrastructure, but they are also annihilating its
environment,” warned Green Line, a Lebanese environmental group, in a
statement issued Thursday. “This is one of the worst environmental
crises in Lebanese history.”
The most significant damage has come from airstrikes on an oil storage
depot at the edge of Jiyeh on July 13 and 15. Oil spewed into the
Mediterranean Sea and a fire erupted that has been burning ever since.
Four of the plant’s six oil storage containers have burned completely,
spilling at least 10,000 tons of thick fuel oil into the sea initially,
and possibly up to 15,000 more in the weeks since. A fifth tank burst
into flames on Thursday, residents said, adding to a smoke cloud that
has spewed soot and debris miles away. The fire is so hot that it has
melted rail cars into blobs and turned the sand below into glass.
Engineers are concerned that a sixth tank still untouched by the fire
could soon explode, making the situation even graver.
The prevailing winds and currents have swept the oil northward up the
coast of Lebanon, and on Friday it reached the coast of Syria,
Environment Ministry officials said.
“You can’t swim in the water anymore, it’s all black,” Mr. Saeed said.
“This is like the Exxon Valdez spill in America,” he said, speaking of
the environmental damage caused when a tanker ran aground and spilled
about 40,000 tons of oil into Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989.
Lebanon’s coast is an important nesting ground for the green sea
turtle, an endangered species, as well as a spawning ground for some
Mediterranean fish. Turtle eggs begin hatching in July, but with the oil slick
coating most of the area, baby turtles will have a far smaller chance
of making it to deeper waters and surviving, environmentalists say. The
oil slick is also threatening bluefin tuna that migrate to the eastern
Mediterranean this time of year.
The Environment Ministry sent crews to various parts of the country
this week to assess the damage and begin the cleanup, a spokeswoman said.
But the oil slick has quickly proven beyond the government’s limited
capacity to deal with the problem.
The ministry estimates cleanup alone will cost upwards of $200 million,
a major sum in a country with a gross domestic product of around $21
billion, but experts warn the bill could run even higher.
Jordan has offered to send experts to provide technical assistance, and
Kuwait has pledged to send material and equipment to help clean up the
spill.
Brush fires in many parts of the country have been an equally pressing
concern as they rage unabated. Firefighters and forestry workers cannot
move around for fear of being targets, and resources are being used to
help refugees.
“In Israel there are planes taking care of forest fires, but in Lebanon
these fires are not being extinguished or even noticed because our
priorities have shifted from the environment to relief and humanitarian
work,” said Mounir Abou Ghanem, director general of the Association for
Forest Development and Conservation in Beirut.
Much of the budget for environmental protection and development has
been sacrificed for relief work, he said. The oil spills, he said, will
eventually be cleaned up and solid waste will be collected and disposed
of when the war is over, but the forests are irreplaceable.
“In the end, who cares if a forest is on fire when there are people
dying, others are being displaced and their houses or factories are on
fire?” he said.
Water pollution has become an issue, too, said Karim el-Jisr, senior
associate at Ecodit, a nongovernmental environmental association.
Wastewater and freshwater canals are very close together and the many bombs
that have hit roads and other infrastructure have damaged them. As a
result, Mr. Jisr said, wastewater is contaminating the freshwater supply,
especially in rural areas, causing further environmental degradation.
But experts warn that the real environmental impact of the war will not
be clear until the fighting ends.
“This war will affect the soil and the air,” said Hala Ashour, the
director of Green Line, the environmental group. “But it’s still too early
to assess the actual damage because we have to analyze samples and that
can’t be done before the war is over.”
In Jiyeh, Mr. Saeed and the few other remaining residents have begun
learning to live with the pollution. Within the first few days of the oil
fire, Mr. Saeed said, they wore masks to breathe; now, he said, they
are used to it.
Maher Ali, 24, a fisherman, said: “When the winds blow north, it’s
bearable, but when it blows east, it’s deadly. The soot lands on the food
and furniture and makes everything dirty. You just can’t leave a glass
of water sitting around. It’s no wonder most families have given up and
left.”
Nada Bakri contributed reporting from Beirut for this article.
tribunals for Israel's leadership and war reparations, from Israel to Lebanon and Palestine for infrastructure repair and the clean-up of its devastated environment and coastline.
_________________________________________________________
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/29/world/middleeast/29environment.html
July 29, 2006
Environment
Casualties of War: Lebanon’s Trees, Air and Sea
By HASSAN M. FATTAH
JIYEH, Lebanon, July 28 — As Israel continues the bombing campaign that
has turned parts of Lebanon into rubble, environmentalists are warning
of widespread and lasting damage.
Spilled and burning oil, along with forest fires, toxic waste flows and
growing garbage heaps have gone from nuisances to threats to people and
wildlife, they say, marring a country traditionally known for its clean
air and scenic greenery. Many of Lebanon’s once pristine beaches and
much of its coastline have been coated with a thick sludge that threatens
marine life.
As smoke billowed overhead on Friday, turning day into dusk, Ali Saeed,
a resident, recounted how war has changed this small industrial town
about 15 miles south of Beirut.
Most people have left, he said. It is virtually impossible to drive on
the roads, and almost everyone hides behind sealed windows.
“There’s nowhere to run,” Mr. Saeed said, showing off the black
speckles on his skin that have turned everything white here into gray. “It’s
dripping fuel from the sky.”
A large oil spill and fire caused by Israeli bombing have sent an oil
slick traveling up the coast of Lebanon to Syria, threatening to become
the worst environmental disaster in the country’s history and engulfing
this town in smoke.
“The escalating Israeli attacks on Lebanon did not only kill its
civilians and destroy its infrastructure, but they are also annihilating its
environment,” warned Green Line, a Lebanese environmental group, in a
statement issued Thursday. “This is one of the worst environmental
crises in Lebanese history.”
The most significant damage has come from airstrikes on an oil storage
depot at the edge of Jiyeh on July 13 and 15. Oil spewed into the
Mediterranean Sea and a fire erupted that has been burning ever since.
Four of the plant’s six oil storage containers have burned completely,
spilling at least 10,000 tons of thick fuel oil into the sea initially,
and possibly up to 15,000 more in the weeks since. A fifth tank burst
into flames on Thursday, residents said, adding to a smoke cloud that
has spewed soot and debris miles away. The fire is so hot that it has
melted rail cars into blobs and turned the sand below into glass.
Engineers are concerned that a sixth tank still untouched by the fire
could soon explode, making the situation even graver.
The prevailing winds and currents have swept the oil northward up the
coast of Lebanon, and on Friday it reached the coast of Syria,
Environment Ministry officials said.
“You can’t swim in the water anymore, it’s all black,” Mr. Saeed said.
“This is like the Exxon Valdez spill in America,” he said, speaking of
the environmental damage caused when a tanker ran aground and spilled
about 40,000 tons of oil into Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989.
Lebanon’s coast is an important nesting ground for the green sea
turtle, an endangered species, as well as a spawning ground for some
Mediterranean fish. Turtle eggs begin hatching in July, but with the oil slick
coating most of the area, baby turtles will have a far smaller chance
of making it to deeper waters and surviving, environmentalists say. The
oil slick is also threatening bluefin tuna that migrate to the eastern
Mediterranean this time of year.
The Environment Ministry sent crews to various parts of the country
this week to assess the damage and begin the cleanup, a spokeswoman said.
But the oil slick has quickly proven beyond the government’s limited
capacity to deal with the problem.
The ministry estimates cleanup alone will cost upwards of $200 million,
a major sum in a country with a gross domestic product of around $21
billion, but experts warn the bill could run even higher.
Jordan has offered to send experts to provide technical assistance, and
Kuwait has pledged to send material and equipment to help clean up the
spill.
Brush fires in many parts of the country have been an equally pressing
concern as they rage unabated. Firefighters and forestry workers cannot
move around for fear of being targets, and resources are being used to
help refugees.
“In Israel there are planes taking care of forest fires, but in Lebanon
these fires are not being extinguished or even noticed because our
priorities have shifted from the environment to relief and humanitarian
work,” said Mounir Abou Ghanem, director general of the Association for
Forest Development and Conservation in Beirut.
Much of the budget for environmental protection and development has
been sacrificed for relief work, he said. The oil spills, he said, will
eventually be cleaned up and solid waste will be collected and disposed
of when the war is over, but the forests are irreplaceable.
“In the end, who cares if a forest is on fire when there are people
dying, others are being displaced and their houses or factories are on
fire?” he said.
Water pollution has become an issue, too, said Karim el-Jisr, senior
associate at Ecodit, a nongovernmental environmental association.
Wastewater and freshwater canals are very close together and the many bombs
that have hit roads and other infrastructure have damaged them. As a
result, Mr. Jisr said, wastewater is contaminating the freshwater supply,
especially in rural areas, causing further environmental degradation.
But experts warn that the real environmental impact of the war will not
be clear until the fighting ends.
“This war will affect the soil and the air,” said Hala Ashour, the
director of Green Line, the environmental group. “But it’s still too early
to assess the actual damage because we have to analyze samples and that
can’t be done before the war is over.”
In Jiyeh, Mr. Saeed and the few other remaining residents have begun
learning to live with the pollution. Within the first few days of the oil
fire, Mr. Saeed said, they wore masks to breathe; now, he said, they
are used to it.
Maher Ali, 24, a fisherman, said: “When the winds blow north, it’s
bearable, but when it blows east, it’s deadly. The soot lands on the food
and furniture and makes everything dirty. You just can’t leave a glass
of water sitting around. It’s no wonder most families have given up and
left.”
Nada Bakri contributed reporting from Beirut for this article.
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