PIRAEUS, Greece, 18 August 2006 — Lebanon said yesterday it will sue Israel for causing a massive oil spill in the Mediterranean. Lebanese Environment Minister Yacoub Sarraf said this during a meeting of officials from countries in the eastern Mediterranean who were here yesterday to forge a plan for containing the spill caused by Israeli bombardment of an electric plant in Lebanon.
The spill of up to 15,000 tons of oil from the power plant at Jiyyeh, south of Beirut, in mid-July has severely polluted the coastline and officials warn of worse to come.
Experts said the meeting, called by the United Nations Environment Program and the International Maritime Organization, would also discuss how to finance clean-up operations.
Under a plan drawn up by the UN’s Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Center for the Mediterranean Sea, Lebanon is to be provided assistance in cleaning the coastline. Steps are also to be taken to avoid a spread of the oil slick to neighboring countries.
The UN Environment Program wants operations to begin as soon as possible.
Also attending the meeting were Cypriot Environment Minister Photis Photiou, Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, Greek Merchant Marine Minister Manolis Kefaloyannis, Syrian Environment Ministry official Akram Khoun, International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Efthymios Mitropoulos and the head of the UN Environment Program Achim Steiner.
The European Commission, which is also represented, has said it will contribute to international aid operations.
Armed only with shovels and plastic buckets, a few dozen volunteers struggled yesterday to scrape oil-stained sand off a Beirut beach as environmental groups began the monumental task of cleaning up tons of oil spilt across Lebanon’s coast.
“We’re trying to move as much sand as possible today and tomorrow so we’ll know how many days it will take” to clean Ramlet El-Bayda beach, said Nina Jamal of the Lebanese environmental group Green Line.
The oil spill has polluted some 140 km of the Lebanese coast and spread north into Syrian waters, according to the UN Environment Program.
“This is the biggest environmental disaster in the Mediterranean basin, we can say that very easily,” said Green Line’s Wael Humaidan before rushing off to a meeting with government officials.
Young men and women working on the beach gathered oil-soaked debris into small piles while others tried to dig up sand that had been transformed into a thick, noxious gum by the spill. Others deployed oil booms in a bid to keep the pollution from washing back into the sea.
The beach has been fouled by a vast black smear that has stained the sand dozens of meters inland and blackened stone breakwaters on either end of Ramlet El-Bayda. More shocking, volunteers said, was yesterday’s discovery that the pollution has reached nearly a half-meter into the beach. A hole dug near the waterline revealed at least five bands of thick fuel oil sandwiched between the sand.
