United
Nations Team Begins Country-Wide Study of Potential
Environmental Hot Spots
Beirut/Nairobi, 2 October 2006
- An international team of experts will tomorrow
begin an assessment of the environmental damage
in Lebanon caused by the recent conflict.
The team, led by the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 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 thermal
power plant 28km south of Beirut which discharged
an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 tonnes of fuel oil
into the Mediterranean after being hit in mid
July; Beirut 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 19 July.
Other sites expected to be assessed
by the UNEP-led team and national experts include
some of the estimated 22 country-wide petrol stations
that were damaged or destroyed and locations where
there is thought to be unexploded ordnance.
The team also plans to assess
pollution risks at several damaged drinking water,
sewage treatment and hospital facility sites.
Damaged power transformers,
collapsed buildings and ruptured oil lines that
may have leaked or discharged hazardous substances
and materials—such as asbestos and chlorinated
compounds – are also earmarked for assessment.
Achim Steiner, United Nations
Under-Secretary 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”.
“Work is on-going to deal with
the oil spill on the Lebanese coast. We must now
look at the wider impacts as they relate to issues
such as underground and surface water supplies,
coastal contamination and the health and fertility
of the land,” he said.
“This post conflict assessment
is being undertaken in response to a request by
the Lebanese government to assist in the development
of a framework for guiding international reconstruction
efforts,” said Mr Steiner.
“I must thank the governments
of Norway and Switzerland for helping to fund
the assessment which should take just under a
month. We expect to have a comprehensive report
on sites and locations in need of decontamination
and clean up before the end of the year. Once
the hard facts are known and the hot spots pin
pointed, I would urge the international community
to back the findings as part of the reconstruction
effort for Lebanon and its people,” he added.
Notes to Editors
The decision to undertake a post conflict assessment
follows a request in early August from the Lebanese
Ministry of the Environment.
UNEP and its international team
of experts will be liaising and working closely
with the Lebanese authorities; the Lebanese National
Council for Scientific Research; other United
Nations agencies and organizations; the World
Bank; IUCN-the World Conservation Union; the American
University of Beirut; and non governmental organizations.
The potential list of sites
to be visited and sampled is based on research
by UNEP supplemented by remote sensing data and
recommendations made by Yacoub Sarraf, the Environment
Minister of Lebanon.
The main areas of interest cover solid wastes;
contamination at industrial sites including airports;
coastal and marine contamination; potential impacts
on ground water; rivers and lakes and springs;
effects on waste water management; asbestos contamination
linked with collapsed buildings; air pollution
and possible impacts on soils and vegetation;
and issues related to the use of weapons including
possible use of depleted uranium.
UNEP’s Post-Conflict Branch
has extensive experience in this field, having
carried out similar work in Afghanistan, the Balkans,
Iraq, and Liberia.
Information on the Branch’s work can be found
at http://postconflict.unep.ch
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson, Office of the
Executive Director
Elisabeth Waechter, UNEP Associate Media Officer
