Solidere signs agreement with Dutch company

Solidere, the $1.7 billion company in charge of rebuilding Beirut's downtown district, signed a contract with a Dutch company Tuesday to clear and restructure the Normandie landfill, the country's most notorious dumping site.

Solidere Chairman Nasser Chamma'a signed the contract with Duos Engineering to purchase a waste process plant to do the work on the landfill. The process of cleaning is among the most modern and advanced in the world, impressing even Greenpeace, which described the project as "impressive and unique."

Equipment and a Dutch team of experts will be in Beirut to oversee implementation of the project, expected to be completed in five years.

Sixty percent of the $5 million deal is financed by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs Environmental Fund.

"We're talking about state of the art technology for the reclamation and recycling and reuse of the materials from the landfill," Cees Dunn from Duos Engineering told reporters.

He added waste will be separated and recycled in a 70-meter dump.