IS LEBANON’S AIR CANCEROUS?!
July 27, 2024Lebanese Member of Parliament, Dr. Najat Saliba, in cooperation with Lebanese lawyer, Shukri Haddad, and the Socio-Economic Institute for Development, held a Press Conference in Beirut this week to release a report and announce a plan to address the escalating fuel emissions from diesel generators and its detrimental impact on air pollution across Lebanon’s capital city.
Titled “Pollution Risks and the Necessity for Confrontation”, the report details a 100 fold increase in fuel emissions in the past few years.
In this brief interview with Dr. Saliba, she describes not only the effect on Lebanon’s environment but the dangerous impact on the people’s health caused by these fuel emissions.
“We’ve calculated the cancer risk and based on the carcinogens that we have measured, the cancer risk has increased by 53% since 2017,” Dr Saliba said.
At a press briefing held at the Parliament earlier that day, Dr Saliba and fellow MP, Paula Yacoubian, addressed the issue of manipulation of diesel generator meters which Yacoubian said have been tampered with causing increases of 60% per household in their monthly energy bills.
An investigation into the rorting of these metres by generator operators has been launched.
Watch the full interview to find out the plan and measures that have been put forward in the parliament demanding the relevant Ministers of Environment, Water & Energy, Minister of the Interior, and Minister of Energy, address these immediately and end the ongoing corruption, health risks and further economic pressure on the citizens of Lebanon.
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English Script:
Daizy Gedeon: You’ve just announced in a very important report on the situation on Lebanon’s environment. What is so important that we should all know about?
Najat Saliba: So I have been following the emissions of diesel generators since 2010, and we have been always raising the alarm and saying that those emissions are toxic. However, when we did the last study in 2022-2023, we found that the emissions have increased by 100 fold.
Daizy Gedeon: 100 fold.
Najat Saliba: This means that the toxins that we are inhaling and they are deposited on our lungs and our hearts and in the blood, in the blood streams are doubled or they have doubled okay? What was really important in this study is that we were able to compare the numbers to previous studies, and that’s one of the strengths of this study. So we were able to compare it to 2017, 2015 and 2010.
Daizy Gedeon: In the study were you able to identify an increase in illnesses among people?
Najat Saliba: I’m not an epidemiologist. However, we’ve calculated the cancer risk and based on the carcinogens that we have measured, and the cancer risk has increased since 2017 by 53%. And that was very, very alarming. And so the whole world paid attention to this study, it has been covered by so many journalists, locally and internationally. Just to say enough is enough. We cannot continue inhaling those carcinogens anymore.
Daizy Gedeon: Are there any comparisons globally to this kind of escalation in carcinogens in the air?
Najat Saliba: There is no such thing as many power plants in between buildings in the whole world, except in emerging cities, in war emerging cities. This is what we call them. Damascus is like us, Iraq is like us, especially Baghdad. So this war emerging cities are subsidizing or substituting in power plants and infrastructure by many power plants in between buildings. And this creates not only a health problem in terms of carcinogens, it also creates a very major safety risk because those diesel generators heat up during the summer and they are prone to incidents of fires. In fact, the World Bank has reported that they, you know, there is between 200 and 220 incidents of fires every year from these generators.
Daizy Gedeon: Around the world or in Lebanon?
Najat Saliba: In Lebanon. So what we’re trying to do, what we’re saying, okay although this sector is outside the law, it should not be here. But since it is, you know…
Daizy Gedeon: De facto.
Najat Saliba: Yeah, de facto we have to deal with it. That’s why we’re saying if we have to deal with it, at least you have to apply the decrees that have been put out by the Ministry of Environment, regulating this sector just a little bit, by asking the diesel generator owners to put filters and to put insulation around the diesel generators for noise, and also make sure that they have enough extinguishers in case of fire.
(speaking Arabic) Najat Saliba: A report by the World Bank says that generator owners earn between $20,000 and $200,000 per month, depending on how many generators they own. This means that someone who owns one 500 kVA generator earns around $20,000 per month, and someone who owns many generators earns up to $200,000 per month. This means that these people are satisfied with the situation, and if we tell them that they must install a silencer and a filter and that they must clean up their surroundings, they start threatening that either we will cut off the electricity or or you will be quiet and stop complaining. We will not remain silent about this method of blackmail and this way of communication, and we will remain in contact with all ministries until they assume their responsibility and do their work.
Daizy Gedeon: How much support do you have within the Parliament for this initiative, for you to put pressure on the owners, so to speak, or the government to implement laws?
Najat Saliba: I am so happy to say that I can hear everyone talking about this study everywhere, even in the Parliament. And so we will take measures. escalating measures if the executive body, that means the Ministers concerned, are not going to help us to regulate those filters.
Daizy Gedeon: And what those measures are?
Najat Saliba: We sent letters to the Governor, to the Governors of Beirut and Mount Lebanon. We received complaints from people, we were the interlocutors between the people and the Head of municipalities and the councils, that’s one. We wrote letters to the Minister of Environment, to the Minister of Water and Energy and to the Minister of Interior, because they are the ones concerned. And today I heard that there is also an adulteration with the meters. I’m going to also be coordinating with the Minister of Economy.
Daizy Gedeon: What do you mean by adulteration? Manipulation?
Najat Saliba: Manipulation, exactly. So there’s manipulation with the meters.
(speaking Arabic) Paula Yacoubian: Electric generator meters have spread like cancer among Beirut’s neighborhoods, and Dr. Najat has held more than one press conference about their pollution and consequences, and she continues to do so. Today, an additional scandal has emerged regarding how they’re stealing money from Lebanese homes, from almost every home. Well, you all remember the meter campaign when we installed meters, and that was good, we said there would be some kind of control over them. Today we discover that these meters are being tampered with and damaged, to the point of cheating and stealing from people’s homes, and they consume more than 60% of the actual consumption, which means that bills increase by up to 60%.
Daizy Gedeon: What are the other measures that you can take to put pressure on them?
Najat Saliba: We’re talking also to the judiciary body because they have the prerogative to go down on the streets and make sure that the diesel generators owners comply with the decrease. So we’re coordinating with them as well. And we have a plan to go to the international community as well.
Daizy Gedeon: The owners of the diesel generators. Let’s not kid ourselves, are the warlords that still control this country today.
Najat Saliba: Yes.
Daizy Gedeon: And they’re the ones that are, preventing real further improvement. And the country is in a state of chaos because of that leadership, and the status quo that they continue to maintain. So how do you propose, when they own, each warlord owns an area across Beirut, mostly in the major city. What is the real likelihood of having any cut through or having any impact on those people?
Najat Saliba: They have to. This time putting this study in their face, and we’re also sending letters to the Ministers and saying, if you don’t act, you’re committing a crime. And Second, these people, warlords, like you said, they care so much about their image outside Lebanon. And what we will do, we will tarnish this image, by taking this study that is going to be approved by the scientific community at large, because we have submitted also for a scientific publication, and we are going take it to UNFCCC (The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and IPCC (The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), all the UN agencies, where they call upon them to take action, especially that this is also contributing to the climate change and to the heating of the city because of the emission of greenhouse gases and everything. So we know we have a plan.
Daizy Gedeon: As a UNESCO laureate, your voice in this environment, it’s very credible, it’s very authoritative. So I think the international community will really pay attention to you, and thankfully your name and signature on this report and study is very credible for Lebanon.
Najat Saliba: Thank you Daizy.
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