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TREASURY LOANS: LBP 3,200 BILLION IN FIVE YEARS Cost of Beirut international airport February 2011 | 103 China’s growing economy, a threat to the U.S.? The Monthly interviews Nada Al - Assaad issue number www.iimonthly.com • Published by Information International sal $128 MILLION ANNUALLY AND GARBAGE IS PILING Lebanon 5,000LL | Saudi Arabia 15SR | UAE 15DHR | Jordan 2JD| Syria 75SYP | Iraq 3,500IQD | Kuwait 1.5KD | Qatar 15QR | Bahrain 2BD | Oman 2OR | Yemen 15YRI | Egypt 10EP | Europe 5Euros INDEX 4 LEADER: $128 MILLION ANNUALLY FOR SUKLEEN AND SUKOMI 9 Treasury loans 16 Cost of Beirut international airport 17 The Ministry of the Displaced 19 The Ministry of Youth and Sports 21 Immunity of Judges and Members of the Constitutional Council 22 Adoption 23 Syndicate of Photojournalists in Lebanon Page 30 25 Lycée Abdel Kader 27 Scalp Hair Loss by Dr. Hanna Saadah 28 Supersizing Working Memory by Dr. Samar Zebian 29 Waiting for the letter and a response by Antoine Boutros Page 23 30 The Monthly interviews Nada Al-Assaad 32 Popular culture 38 Samir Geagea after the Civil War 33 Myth #42: Arab Salvation Army 39 December 2010 Timeline in Lebanon 34 Must-read books: Warlords and Merchants 42 Global Peace Index 2010 35 Must-read children’s book: “Let’s Have Fun and Discover Downtown Beirut” 43 China’s growing economy, a threat to the U.S.? 36 Lebanon Families: Khawli Family 47 Real estate index in Lebanon- 37 Discover Lebanon: Kabrikha December 2010 48 Food Price Index - December 2010 50 Nobel Prizes 50 Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport - December 2010 51 Lebanon stats 3 | EDITORIAL DRAINS ere is the Mufti performing the rain prayer and the sky has answered. The roads are flooded, which begs the obvious question: if you don’t Hhave drains, why pray for rain? At a time when public debt and Sukleen garbage are piling-up and public money is going down the drain, along with all public facilities, another question emerges: why can’t we block these drains? * Sukleen, Lafayette and NTCC = $2 billion DRAIN NO. 1 More than $1.5 billion have been spent to collect and pile garbage on sea shores and valleys in Beirut, Saida and Trablous with total oblivion to its harm to man and the environment in addition to an estimated loss of $500 million for not recycling waste, because we did not implement a comprehensive solid waste treatment plan for Lebanon. This is how we have drained $2 billion since 1992. Water = $8 billion DRAIN NO. 2 More than $600 million are paid annually by households and offices to bottled water companies because our water is polluted and the network is non existent. This is how we have drained $8 billion since 1992. Electricity = $12 billion DRAIN NO. 3 More than $400 million are paid annually to owners of generators in addition to a $600 million annual loss by the electricity sector, because Lebanon has yet to discover electricity. This is how we have drained $12 billion since 1992. Open sewers network=smile you are in Lebanon! DRAIN NO. 4 Open sewers flowing from the roads into rivers and seas. This should be an opportunity for our Zua’ama to look into. Blocked drains that ought to be open and open drains that ought to be blocked, this has been our story since 1920. And so the story goes. * The estimated amounts do not include interest. issue 103 - February 2011 4 | LEADER SUKLEEN COLLECTION AND DUMPING OF WASTE $128 MILLION ANNUALLY FOR SUKLEEN AND SUKOMI he issue of waste treatment in Lebanon is one of the environmental problems that governmental approaches have failed to solve despite the substantial funds spent to that end, especially to cover the cost of contracts Twith the Sukleen and Sukomi companies – which are the focus of this article. Size of solid waste in Lebanon The size of waste in Lebanon (domestic, industrial and In the absence of a medical waste) is estimated at around 4,000-4,200 tons/ “ day or around 1.5 million tons/year. It emerges from national plan, treatment the following: A Organic material: 60% and recycling initiatives A Carton: 10% A Plastic: 10% are also non-existent. A Glass: 5% A Fabric: 5% Recycling is limited to A Minerals and other substances: 5% around 400 tons of waste This waste is distributed by muhafazat as follows: A Beirut and Mount Lebanon: 2,300 tons a day or 10% A North and A’akkar: 700 tons A Beqa’a and Ba’albeck-Hermel: 400 tons A South and Nabatieh: 600 tons random containers or to dumpsters” and sanitary landfills that were designed according to technical criteria that The problem prevent it from contaminating groundwater. However, Despite the large size of waste and its hazards, the the capacity of these landfills is limited. In light of the successive Lebanese governments have failed to draft absence of a treatment and recycling process, there is a a comprehensive national plan that covers the entirety continuous search for new landfills to contain the waste, of the Lebanese territory thus leaving the matter to the which increases when the population rises. Meanwhile, municipalities in most villages. These municipalities the adoption of a waste treatment and recycling plan collect and dump untreated and un-recycled waste in the for some 70-80% of waste would reduce the size of valleys and the outskirts of towns and villages. In Saida waste that is being transported to landfills or random and neighboring villages, NTCC (New Trading and dumpsters and thus contain the problem. Contracting Company) is responsible for this task while in Trablous and Mina al-Qalmoun, Lafayette is in charge This has led to an increase in the quantities of waste of waste collection. In Beirut and some 225 towns and dumped in landfills in Na’ameh from 200 tons/day to villages in Mount Lebanon, Sukleen took over the tasks 2,300 tons/day, accelerating a decline in the landfill’s of cleaning the streets and collecting waste while Sukomi ability to contain waste and forcing searches for an is in charge of treatment and landfilling. alternative landfill in a location near Beirut. In the absence of a national plan, treatment and What the companies in charge of waste and recycling initiatives are also non-existent. Recycling is municipalities are doing is to collect and transport limited to around 400 tons of waste a day or 10% of waste from the streets, cities and inner neighborhoods the total size of waste. Therefore, the process turns into to the outskirts. As such, they are in no way solving or one of transporting waste from streets and homes to treating the problem. issue 103 - The Monthly is published by Information International s.a.l. SUKLEEN LEADER | 5 Treatment plan Amid a cost increase and in the absence of a solution to the waste treatment problem, especially in Beirut and its surroundings, the Council of Ministers approved, by virtue of Decree No. 18 dated January 22, 1997, an emergency plan submitted by the Ministry of Environment. The plan was based on the following: A The rehabilitation of the A’amroussieh plant and the burning of around 600 tons/day of solid domestic waste A The rehabilitation of the Karantina plant to contain 1,100 tons of waste a day on condition that the waste would be treated by a process of sorting, burning and fermentation A The construction of a new fermentation center near Nahr Beirut A The compression of substances left in the two plants that cannot be recycled or fermented. These are estimated at around 200 tons/day and are to be placed in a sanitary landfill The above plan was never implemented for the following reasons: A No new fermentation centers were built with a capacity to treat 850 tons of waste a day. Therefore, the current capacity of 300 tons/day was maintained and the substances fermented, amounting to 310,000 tons/year, were sandblasted in the sanitary landfill in Na’ameh A Population growth causing an increase in the size of domestic waste, from 1,700 tons/day to 2,600 tons/day, requiring treatment Main contracts On March 10, 1994, contract No. 1348 was signed between the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) and Sukleen. The contract included cleaning and waste collection in Beirut and some neighboring regions on condition that the government would provide the cost of the necessary machines and containers. The contract was later amended to expand the areas covered, as shown in Table 1. Table 1 demonstrates that the contracts were consensual and were signed at a low cost at the beginning, but later increased as waste collection and street cleaning expanded to include more areas. The cost increased from $4 million/year to $102 million/year and its funding was transferred from the CDR to the Independent Municipal Fund. Amendments to Contract No. 1348 Table 1 Initiation and Contract No. Company Cost (USD) Subject of the Funding Manner of assignment expiration contract dates Sukkar 1348 Engineering 3,597,283 Collection of domestic World Bank A rehabilitation process took place prior 1-1-1994 until Group waste in Greater Beirut and the CDR to bidding 31-12-1995 Sukkar Consensus between the Sectoral 1-9-1994 until 1348, annex 1 Engineering 2,800,000 Cleaning of Beirut’s CDR Planning and Programming Department Group administrative streets (of the CDR) and Oger International 31-12-1995 Sukkar Consensus between the Sectoral 6-3-1995 until 1348, annex 2 Engineering 7,500,000 Cleaning of the streets of CDR Planning and Programming Department Group Greater Beirut (of the CDR) and Oger International 31-12-1995 Sukkar Consensus between the Sectoral 6-1-1995 until 1348, annex 3 Engineering - Donation of 10 trucks CDR Planning and Programming Department Group and 1,600 containers (of the CDR) and Oger International 21-2-1995 Collection of domestic Independent Consensus between the Sectoral Sukkar waste and cleaning of 1-1-1996 until 1348, annex 4 Engineering 102,625,000 Municipal Planning and Programming Department 31-12-2000 the streets of Greater Fund (of the CDR) and Oger International Group Beirut Source: Minutes of Cabinet Meetings 6 - 4 - 2010 issue 103 - February 2011 6 | LEADER SUKLEEN and nine location monitors) in addition to office rent, The contracts [...] were telecommunication and transportation.

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