Greenpeace activists launch campaign to clean Lebanese coastline
Lebanon, Local, 10/15/1997

Greenpeace activists on Monday launched an ambitious new campaign to identify sources of industrial pollution along the Lebanese coastline.

Sailing in a small inflatable dinghy boat, Greenpeace's Lebanon campaigner Fouad Hamdan and the group's scientist from laboratories at Exeter University in England, Angela Stephenson, took samples for study from the sea near the Normandy landfill and other notorious garbage dumps.

"By confronting industrialists with clear scientific facts, they will be forced to change their ways," Hamdan said.

Hamdan explained at a news conference Monday the aim of the campaign. "Greenpeace does not want to close down any factory or industry. On the contrary we want them to make money and expand, but not at the expense of the environment or people's health."

"We just don't want the Mediterranean to become known as the Black Sea," he said. Hamdan added that industry produces 326,000 tons of waste each year, some of which is toxic. He said industrial waste is expected to grow to 1 million tons per year by 2010.

The results of the test samples are expected to be released by the Exeter laboratories at the end of next month. The report will be submitted to the president of the Industrialists' Association, Jacques Sarraf, Minister of Industry Nadeem Salem, Environment Minister Akram Chehayeb and the president of the Council for Development and Reconstruction, Nabil Jisr.

Greenpeace has been actively campaigning since the end of the 1975-90 civil war to rid Lebanon of some of the many sources of pollution in this small Mediterranean country. During the chaotic days of the war, Lebanon, like many other third world countries, became a dumping site for industrial waste shipped from abroad.

Earlier this year, Greenpeace helped in the campaign to return some 30 containers of toxic waste material to Germany. The containers were shipped to Lebanon and dumped in landfills during the 1980s.

Previous Stories:
  Toxic waste may put Beirut water supply at great risk   (9/3/1997)
  Naameh must not become another Bourj Hamoud   (8/27/1997)
  Sukom expels Greenpeace members   (8/26/1997)

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