A number of Lebanon’s activist lawyers have reportedly filed a lawsuit against the Lebanese state and a private company in order to block the construction of two controversial landfills east and south of the capital.
Local media reported that the first lawsuit was filed to an urgent matters judge in Baabda against the state, the Al-Jihad Group for Commerce and Contracting and the Union of the southern Beirut municipalities.
The second lawsuit was filed to a similar judge in Jdeidet al-Metn.
The lawsuits were filed by lawyers Hasan Bazzi, Hani al-Ahmadiye, Abbas Srour and civil society activists Bedji Temeni and Firas Bou Hatoum.
Al-Jihad Group was awarded the contract for the construction of the two landfills, one in Costa Brava and the other in Burj Hammoud.
In March, the government reached a temporary solution to the eight-month-long garbage crisis, which entailed reopening the infamous Naameh landfill for two months in order to collect the decomposing waste that had piled up on Beirut and Mount Lebanon’s streets. It also included the construction of the two landfills at the center of the lawsuit, one in Costa Brava, south of Beirut, and the other in Burj Hammoud, east of Beirut.
Waste is currently being held in storage lots near the two landfill sites pending the construction of the two dumps.
