The war against waste .. Tripoli Lebanon leads the campaign "Fayhaa secrete"

Ahmed Al Ayoubi - Tripoli

Tripoli's environmental crisis has been escalating north of the Lebanese capital Beirut for decades, but in recent years it has reached the limit of direct danger because of the over-40-meter-high mountain of waste on its coast. It is threatened to explode due to the inability to treat the gas emitted from it, Facing the challenge of solving the problem of waste and reducing its production and recycling within sustainable environmental treatment .

Spanish Finance
This reality has prompted countries around the Mediterranean and their environmental and developmental institutions to move to help Tripoli deal with the problem of waste as it is causing direct damage to the Mediterranean environment. This trend has been translated into support of the screening project from the source in the cities of the Federation of Municipalities of Fayhaa Spanish donors .

This support came from eight Spanish organizations in Catalonia, which financed the project in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs and the Federation of Municipalities of Faiha with a value of eight hundred thousand euros.

Contribution of Lebanese Societies
In preparation for the launch of the project, several associations in Tripoli initiated awareness campaigns and started the first stages of sorting in homes and institutions, namely the Muslim Scouts Association (Omar Bin Abdel Aziz), the Association of Guidance and Reform, the Sanabel Association of Environmentalists, , "Pioneers of Development", "Good Work", "Civil Mobility in the North", "Forum of the Disabled", "Rabat Charity" and finally Al-Iman Club.

The associations produced a number of brochures and short films to raise awareness in collaboration with UNDP, and to begin the initial stages of screening in homes and institutions.

"The most effective and sustainable solution to the waste problem is the screening of the source to reduce pollution, and to recover as much recyclable material as possible for plastic, paper, electronic waste, glass and cans," says Mohammed al-Ahdab, a leader in the Muslim Scouts.

He added that the project of sorting initiative from the source of the cities of Fayha includes the establishment of four centers for the collection of waste materials in order to restore 5% of the volume of daily waste in Tripoli, which is 450 tons per day within a year.

Al-Ahdab pointed to the presence of 16 green points in the cities of Fayhaa to receive the sorted materials and encourages the citizens to regularly count, and to make sure that the materials covered conditions, especially that they are clean and cardboard materials are contaminated with organic materials.

"As a result of the worsening waste crisis in Tripoli, the associations themselves have faced the need for effective cooperation to contribute to addressing this problem that has entered everyone's homes," explained Nadia El-Halab of Sanabel Al-Nour Association.

Wael Zumerli of the Association of Guidance and Reform of Al-Jazeera Net said that there are two parallel tracks in the project. The first is to make people aware that the solution is in their hands and they should take part in it to improve environmental and health conditions for future generations .

The town of Tripoli is the second city in Lebanon and the capital of the north, located 85 km from the capital Beirut. The city bears the nickname "Al Fayhaa" because it was previously rich in citrus orchards and smelled of distinctive smell. It covers an area of ​​15 square kilometers and has a population of eight hundred thousand living in one of the oldest cities History, but lack basic services, especially in infrastructure and the environment .