From sewer to sea

byHabib Battah
Feb 6, 2015

I was on my way to drop off my recycling at Ziad’s recycling plant near the port of Beirut when I noticed this nasty river.

Workers nearby told me all the sewers of Beirut flow through here. It’s literally a raging river of fifth:

And the smell standing here is vomit inducing.

This an aerial view of the port area, and as you can see, the brown waste is visible from space:

Screen Shot 2015-02-06 at 7.56.47 PM

Here’s a close up of the canal in my photo. The area is known as Karantina and the canal is just next to the slaughterhouse.

Screen Shot 2015-02-06 at 7.55.32 PM

This is my second post about sewage flowing from Beirut’s coast. I previously documented a big brown spill off the coast of Khalde, near the airport. So how many sewers flow right into the sea from Beirut? And why is this wastewater not treated?

Equally important, why isn’t this story on TV more often? Isn’t it more important than all the politicians visits and press conferences that dominate the evening news? Do any of them have anything to say about sewage?

Habib Battah

Habib Battah is an investigative journalist and founder of the news site beirutreport.com. Battah has covered Lebanon and the Middle East for over 15 years and teaches journalism and media studies at the American University of Beirut. He is a contributor to Monocle, The Guardian, BBC World, Al Jazeera and others, a former fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University and two-time recipient of the Samir Kassir Press Freedom Award. Battah's investigative work was recently recognized for outstanding local reporting by the Columbia University Oakes Award for Environmental Reporting. Battah earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in Near East Studies and Journalism from New York University.

4 comments

p says:

Feb 7, 2015 at 4:50 pm

Because the bourj hammoud municipality refuses to treat the rest of beirut’s waste water. That simple.

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1. Habib Battah says:
  
  Feb 10, 2015 at 12:54 pm
  
  Interesting P. Is there any reason why Bourj Hammoud is the only municipality treating waste? Shouldn’t waste treatment be a city-wide issue through Beirut municipality?
  
  Reply
matt nash says:

Feb 11, 2015 at 11:24 am

I don’t get exact figures on how much wastewater is being sent into the sea (or dumped into valley or on the open ground, or even used for irrigating crops) but I have quite a bit on the why….. http://www.executive-magazine.com/economics-policy/water-quality-concerns

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Cathy says:

Oct 2, 2016 at 8:25 pm

Treating and filtering sewage is costly , therefore the Lebanese government chooses not to take action , the entire country is ran by clowns that I have known and seen on television since birth … and I’m nearly 40 ! No recycling system , no sewage water treatment , no electricity, no fresh water , same old crooks with no new policies .

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