A discussion session was held in Nabatieh Province, attended by the Minister of Environment in the caretaker government, Nasser Yassin, regional deputies, and Governor Houda Turk. This meeting continued the discussions Yassin started in the Beqaa region to explain the roadmap for solid waste management developed by the ministry in collaboration with the World Bank, and to discuss ways to implement it to save the waste sector from total collapse and to rebuild an integrated management system and put it back on the right track.
Yassin outlined three pillars for the roadmap:
**The First Pillar: Activating Sound Management, Good Governance, and Transparent Financing in this Sector**
These are fundamental reform components we are working on, which include:
- A. Appointing a National Authority for Solid Waste Management to become the regulatory body for the sector and unify all stakeholders in the field, including the Council for Development and Reconstruction, the Ministry of Administrative Development, the Ministry of Environment, and the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities. This authority can oversee central projects.
- B. Enhancing the decentralization of sector management by dividing Lebanon into 15 service areas. Each service area consists of several districts or a governorate, with criteria based on the amount of waste produced in each area, geographical connectivity, and others. Municipal unions can propose service areas within local plans.
- C. Financing, which is a crucial part of this work, with the most significant reform proposal being a waste fee or cost recovery fee based on an in-depth study we conducted, preparing several scenarios according to waste production. It will start at two dollars in rural areas and three dollars in urban areas, increasing for businesses based on their size.
- D. Establishing a waste information system, as Lebanon currently lacks a waste management information system. This means we do not have information on the amount of waste generated in any town or city, the quantities entering factories, sorting rates, and other data. This is essential for managing the sector, improving its efficiency, and ensuring work transparency and monitoring.
**The Second Pillar: Enhancing Source Separation**
This involves encouraging initiatives and startups, as well as associations working in this sector, and supporting municipalities in establishing sorting delivery centers. This allows for direct delivery of sorted waste in neighborhoods and towns for a fee, incentivizing source separation. Several of these centers will be launched soon.
**The Third Pillar: Investing in Facilities for Sorting, Composting, and Sanitary Landfills**
Most facilities are currently inactive, and we are working with donors to finance their repair, rehabilitation, and return to operation more effectively and efficiently; simultaneously, closing and rehabilitating illegal dumps.
He concluded by emphasizing that "the three pillars are interconnected and require cooperation from ministries, the Parliament, local administrations, and municipalities."
