During the ceremony, Al-Zain stressed the importance of the project in protecting the environment and food safety, noting that the slaughterhouse waste reaches the Iaat treatment station, which requires ensuring its suitability to the station’s operating mechanism. She considered that the slaughterhouse rehabilitation experience should constitute a model for industrial institutions that pour their waste into the station.
In the context of her talk about the environmental damage of the war, Al-Zein said that since October 2023, Israel has burned more than 16 thousand hectares of Lebanese land, pointing out that levels of heavy metals have been detected in the soil of a number of villages in the south and the Bekaa that require environmental rehabilitation.
She added that air pollution in the suburb and some areas that were bombed reached four times the maximum limit allowed by the World Health Organization, while analyzes showed that the levels of the pesticide “glyphosate,” which she said Israel had sprayed in some border villages, exceeded the usual levels in the soil by about 20 to 30 times, with more than two thousand hectares affected.
Al-Zein announced that the Ministry of Environment will resume, as of September, monitoring the work of wastewater treatment plants, including the Iaat station, and will publish the results of chemical and biological analyzes via a digital platform that allows citizens and municipalities to view them.
Al-Zein also expressed her hope to secure funding to improve the status of the waste sorting plant in Baalbek, noting that the municipality delivered waste-related equipment on Tuesday.
She concluded by confirming that the Ministry will keep pace with environmental and development projects in Baalbek, including sanitation, waste, and reserves, within the framework of Lebanon’s commitment to protect 30% of its land and sea area by 2030, in addition to launching “environmental learning oases” starting in the fall, with Baalbek having a share of it.
