Greener Future

Greener Future

On August 4, 2020, Beirut was rocked by the most devastating blast in the city’s history, killing more than 200, injuring more than 10,000 and displacing more than 300,000 people. In addition to the human casualties, it is estimated that 9,700 building were damaged or destroyed, of which more than 70,000 apartments over an area spanning more than 10 km around the port of Beirut. In addition, the following infrastructure incurred massive damages: 3 private and 1 public hospital, 23 Primary Health Care centres, the Ministry of Public Health’s National Central Drugs Warehouse (CDW), 34 schools, around 40,000 residential and commercial buildings, along with 70 cultural heritage buildings.

The massive explosion in the Beirut Port took place amidst a complicated socio-economic context, at a time when the country was already suffering from a compounded crisis including economic fallout, chronic fiscal deficit, environmental deterioration, security risks, in addition to socio-economic challenges that have accumulated over decades of weak governance and increased corruption. Against these macro-economic developments, the magnitude and severity of poverty are expected to intensify, with even more deterioration in purchasing power, loss of jobs, and reduced income.

UNDP is working with partners, including UNEP, EU and WB to design environmentally-sound management plans for the construction and debris waste that was generated from the explosion, particularly focusing on outside the Port, in the most heavily damaged areas of Beirut. In addition, UNDP is designing awareness raising material to protect the health and safety of people and waste handlers. All the plans should eventually integrate into the national solid waste management plans in Lebanon.

In order to develop and implement an environmentally sound and efficient waste management plan, we first needed to assess and estimate the type and amount of disaster waste through a detailed site survey. Over and above the effort we have done ourselves on the ground in collecting this type of information, the results of publicly available damage assessments such as the Disaster Management Sector Beirut Port Explosion Response Assessment Results by Lebanese Red Cross (LRC), the Building Damage Assessment by Order of Engineers and Architects (OEA), and the Beirut Rapid Damage Assessment by UN-Habitat and Beirut Municipality were taken into consideration in terms of validation and cross-referencing the debris quantification to the best possible extent.

Furthermore, the results of this assessment will be integrated into the Construction and Demolition Waste Management Plans under development by the European Union (EU) group of experts and the options for treatment will consider the analysis herewith in consultation with stakeholders and national partners, notably the Ministry of Environment.

In context of the deep economic and financial crisis, and increased spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the already vulnerable dwellers in Karantina are left with very little to rebuild and restore their livelihoods.

An integrated response that caters to the immediate recovery needs of the population while ensuring longer term development and sustainability was crucial.

UNDP used renewable energy and energy efficiency as part of its response package to decrease residents’ electricity bills, to reduce dependence on fossil fuel and integrate climate green recovery. The estimated annual savings exceed 70,000 USD in addition to more than 274 tons of CO2 emissions.