The Minister of State for Administrative Reform in the caretaker government, Dr. Inaya EZZEDDIN toured the Ain Baal sorting facility on August 2nd 2018 along with the Head of Tyre Municipal Federation, the Engineer Hassan Dbouk and a number of specialized consultants and heads of municipalities. The tour comes before the upcoming launch of operation tenders.
H.E Dr. Ezzedine spoke about the facility where operations stopped over a year ago and where rehabilitation works were in progress.
Any gaps and obstacles are being taken into consideration during the rehabilitation of the facility, considering that the success of the waste treatment process requires the adequate adoption of all stages from the process of sorting to the production of compost, which can be used to as fertilizer on agricultural lands. H.E Dr. Ezzedine stressed on the need for a decision by the government about the strategy and vision that will be adopted to recover resources and achieve sustainability either through recycling or through conversion to energy. She also emphasized the importance of a thorough economic feasibility study for any option that will be adopted so as not to turn the strategy into a financial burden on the state.
The Minister then accompanied the delegation to the Bassel Al Assad center, where she held a meeting with several local community organizations, schools, students and scouts. Throughout this meeting, she discussed the need to develop integrated social systems in order to deal with waste management as well as concrete and practical plans that can be launched using any available resources. The Minister highlighted the necessity to establish an administrative entity able to manage the human and administrative resources of the plants in cooperation with municipalities. She also said that the plan should include the improvement of the quality of waste that is reaching facilities, and a guarantee that no industrial and electronic waste enters the plant.
The Minister ended with some recommendations for sustainable development in Tyre which should be based on an integrated plan for the treatment of solid waste in the region, and continuous and long term follow-up on the matter.