Open Letter to Mr. Bilal Hamad, President of the Municipal Council of Beirut

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Aug 29, 2015 Lebanon
[Overflowing trash in the Hamra neighborhood of Beirut in late July 2015. Image by Ziad Abu-Rish] [Overflowing trash in the Hamra neighborhood of Beirut in late July 2015. Image by Ziad Abu-Rish]

Open Letter to Mr. Bilal Hamad, President of the Municipal Council of Beirut

By : Jadaliyya Reports

[The following open letter by Lebanese economist Jad Chaaban was originally published on his website on 27 August 2015.]

Beirut, 27 August 2015

Open Letter to Mr. Bilal Hamad, President of the Municipal Council of Beirut

Dear Mr. Hamad,

I am writing to you as a Lebanese citizen and taxpayer, and a permanent resident of Beirut. I did not vote to elect you for the Municipal Council, because of our country’s twisted and sectarian election laws that do not allow us to elect our representatives based on our main area of residence. But nevertheless I believe it is my right to address you as the only elected municipal representative in the city where I live. And my main complaint is pretty straightforward: Either you and the municipal council take concrete actions to resolve the waste crisis immediately, or you should resign.

I like many of my fellow Beirut residents, Lebanese or foreigners, am a law-abiding citizen, who pays a lot of taxes to finance your and other civil servants’ salaries and expenses. In fact I have calculated that as much as 30% of my income is swiped away by taxes (income tax, Value Added Tax (VAT), benzene tax, mobile phone tax, Beirut municipal taxes – which by the way are 50$/month! – etc…). This comes on top of having to pay two bills for every public service, which in other countries are typically provided by municipalities: I have to buy additional electricity (Beirut municipality doesn’t provide any); I have to buy drinking water in gallons (Beirut municipality doesn’t provide good quality tap water); I need to have a car to go anywhere (Beirut municipality doesn’t have an efficient public transport system); and the list goes on! I am not expecting you and your council to solve all of these issues now (although I believe this can be done, look at some other cities in Lebanon!), but the least you can do immediately is to address the trash issue, before this also becomes a public service that we have to pay two or three times more for it to be resolved!

You will tell me that all of this is none of your business, as almost all public services in the city are handled by the central Government. You will also tell me that the city of Beirut has a peculiar governance structure, where the Government-appointed Beirut Governor shares executive powers with the municipality. You will also mention that your municipality has a limited budget, and no space to handle waste treatment, thus the need to find another area in Lebanon to dump our waste on it. Well Mr. President all of these arguments are invalid.

There is nothing that prevents you from offering public services, even if this were to go against the wishes of the central government. The city of Zahleh has electricity, Jbeil has electric cars in the old town, and Saida has its own freaking waste treatment plant! Since the beginning of the current crisis several Lebanese municipalities have already engaged in sorting household waste at source and recycling. If there is a will there is a way, and no one can prevent your Municipal Council from actively engaging in any public service, especially waste management. Go ahead and you will have mine and all of the Beirut residents’ (voters and non-voters) support.

Also don’t tell me there is no money and space. Your municipality has a cash reserve of 1.2 billion USD, 170 times the budget allocated to the Ministry of Environment! But somehow during your tenure you only found money (and executive powers!) to close down one of Beirut’s last public green spaces (the Dalieh), to install controversial surveillance cameras, and to expropriate land and public parks to build controversial highways (Fouad Boustros Boulevard) and parking lots!

Mr. Hamad you and the Beirut Municipal Council are requested to implement immediately a waste management plan that in my (and many experts’) opinion consists of the following:

  1. Implement a city-wide campaign for sorting waste at source, including separation into recyclables, organic, and non-recyclable items. This would immediately reduce the amount of garbage on the streets and engage Beirut residents as partners in the solution. If you want tips on how this is done, please call the municipalities of Roumieh, Bekfaya, Joun, Arsoun, and many others.
  2. Upgrade the existing waste treatment plants of Karantina into more efficient ones: Once the amount of garbage is reduced through sorting, the existing plants (which fall under the municipality’s jurisdiction) could be easily turned into more efficient waste treatment facilities, therefore minimizing the amount of trash that has to be dumped. By producing better compost and extracting more recyclables, we can minimize the percent of trash currently going to landfills from 75% to only 15%!

The only solution for the waste crisis is that municipalities take back their executive powers and implement sustainable and responsible solutions. If you and your colleagues at the Beirut Municipality cannot do this, then I invite you all to submit your resignations immediately.

Sincerely,

Jad Chaaban
Beirut resident and Lebanese economist
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Aug 22, 2015 Lebanon
Jadaliyya Reports By :
Jadaliyya Reports

Protests in Beirut: Quick Background and Some Videos

Updated: 11pm Sunday 23 August (Beirut Time)

For the second night in a row protestors have clashed with riot police and armed forces in downtown Beirut. Yesterday security forces attempted to violently disperse protestors at a demonstration called for by the You Stink movement using water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets. In response, Lebanese television stations reported that over fifteen thousand people from all over the country congregated in downtown Beirut to continue to demand accountability for government and elite corruption, a plan to provide affordable and reliable public goods (garbage disposal, running water, and electricity), and the immediate resignation of the Lebanese government. In solidarity with protestors in Beirut, protests were held in the northern city of Tripoli and the southern city of Nabatieh and several major highways across the country were shut down by citizens.

The Lebanese government is currently a caretaker government, one that lacks electoral legitimacy due to the illegal extension of the current parliament’s term and the deferral of parliamentary elections that were scheduled for 2014. In addition to the lack of an elected parliament, there has been a presidential vacuum for over a year. 

As of writing, downtown Beirut is a battlefield between protestors and security forces. Over thirty protesters have been injured—many critically— in violent altercations with security forces and brutal methods of dispersal. The YouStink movement is alleging that “baltagia” or “thugs” allied to established political leaders and parties have infiltrated the protest and used violence—including throwing Molotov cocktails— against security forces in order to discredit their political demands. Other protestors are suggesting that the violent altercations are not due to infiltrators, but are rather due to protestors reacting to government-ordered brutal anti-demonstration measures and a lack of clear cohesion in protestors` demands.  These security measures include storming, beating, throwing stones and firing tear gas, water cannons, and rubber bullets.

As of yet, no Lebanese government official has resigned. Another protest has been called for tomorrow. There are unconfirmed reports of a protestor dyring from his wounds.

Original Post 3am Sunday August 23 (Beirut Time)

On Saturday 22 August 2015 thousands of people rallied in Beirut to protest political and economic corruption and the dismal state of public utility services in Lebanon. The lack of reliable basic services in the country, including water, electricity, and garbage pickup, has a long history that was exacerbated by the civil war, the subsequent political settlements, and periodic Israeli military strikes. The failure to provide reliable and affordable public services to the entire country has been a feature of every post-independencen government formed.

Saturday’s demonstration was organized by the "You Stink" campaign. But it was also galvanized by the police brutality that protestors were subjected to on 19 August at a similar protest. Videos from that demonstration show Lebanese security forces charging at and beating protestors with batons while dressed in riot gear. The videos went viral, and when combined with organizing efforts, resulted in thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets today, Saturday 22 August 2015.

The protestors gathered in downtown Beirut near the parliament building, an area that has become the central arena of political protests in Lebanon since 2005. They are demanding that the Lebanese government resign, and that the corruption that plagues the country’s services be made public and addressed. Today, the protestors were again met with police brutality, this time with batons, water canons, tear gas, and rubber bullets. In addition to barricading parts of the downtown area, the government also deployed the army. As of writing, protestors are still trying to hold their ground in downtown Beirut as Lebanese security forces and military forces continue to brutalize them.

The “You Stink” campaign is a grassroots activist network that arose out of public frustration and anger over the trash buildup in Beirut in particular and Lebanon more generally in July 2015. During this month, garbage collection stopped in Beirut as activitsts and residents successfully blocked access to the landfill that had been dangerously filled to over capacity. This landfill began functioning in 1997 as a “temporary” solution to Lebanon’s garbage. In 2014 the government had made promises to find an alternative when residents also succeeded in blocking access to the landfill. Yet the government failed to find a solution, and there is very little indication that it even attempted to do so. In July 2015, after the garbage had not been picked up in Beirut for weeks, the government began trucking and dumping trash to and in towns and municipalities outside of Beirut without the consent (and sometimes knowledge) of the residents of those municipalities. This was the overall context within which “You Stink” campaing mobilized.

Follow #youstink via Facebook and Twitter to get updates. 

Videos from Saturday`s Protest and Government Repression

Overhead shot showing water cannons pushing back protesters: 
https://www.facebook.com/faribodar/videos/10153111578278977/

Security Forces threating protesters with gun fire:
https://www.facebook.com/Zaynoun/videos/10153548422469841/

Video from Previous Protest (19 August)

One of the videos that went viral:
https://www.facebook.com/tol3etre7etkom/videos/1628085397453575/?pnref=story