Post-Conflict Assessment Sought for Lebanon

BEIRUT, Lebanon, August 22, 2006 (ENS) - The international environmental group Friends of the Earth is appealing to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to send a team from its Post-Conflict Branch to Lebanon and Israel to conduct an independent assessment of the environmental impacts of the recent war between Hezbollah and Israel.

In the past, the UNEP Post-Conflict Assessment Branch has conducted investigations in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Macedonia and Albania, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Serbia, Somalia, and Sudan.

Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of Friends of the Earth Middle East, said, "The Post-Conflict Branch of the United Nations Environmental Programme should send a team to Israel and Lebanon as soon as possible. The environmental damage caused by the Hezbollah-Israel war must be analyzed."

"The purpose of such an assessment is to remove politics from the issue of environmental protection," Bromberg said. "Documenting the consequences of war on the shared environment of Israel and Lebanon highlights the loss to both nations, and therefore an impartial UNEP report would contribute to confidence-building in the region."

The 15 nation UN Security Council at UN Headquarters in New York voting to unanimously adopt resolution 1701, which calls for "the immediate cessation by Hizbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations" in Lebanon. August 11, 2006 (Photo by Evan Schneider courtesy UN)

The British media reported that U.S. cargo planes filled with depleted uranium munitions had landed at Prestwick airport, near Glasgow, for refuelling before delivering the weapons to the Israeli armed forces. On July 21, Indymedia UK reported that photos taken near the Lebanese border on July 14 by David Silverman showed Israeli soldiers loading depleted uranium shells into tanks.

The Lebanese Environment Ministry shares these concerns. In a statement earlier this month on the environmental effects of the conflict, the ministry said, "There has been mention in different sources that Israel has been using artillery that contains depleted uranium. The effects of these weapons, as has happened in Iraq, are long term and impact the human gene pool and spans generations."

The ministry is worried about air pollution, saying in a statement August 5, "The particulate air matter that are emitted by the bombing of buildings and infrastructure and that are carried by the air can cause breathing problems."

Piles of decomposing solid waste on roads and pathways are producing methane and volatile organic compounds. "Due to the war, the evacuation of the workers that were integral to the collection of the solid waste led to the piling up of the waste in the streets which has started to decompose due to the heat and has caused the spread of bad smells and can lead to the spread of diseases, insects and vermin," the ministry said.

Pollutants in the air can cause an increase in respiratory illnesses such as asthma and allergies. In addition, the bombardments have caused an increase in acid rain and in the emission of greenhouse gases that will impact climate change, the ministry said.

Most of the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese who fled the month long conflict have gone back to their homes since the UN Security Council mandated ceasefire, only to face shortages of clean water and shelter, according to UN agencies.

“I have never seen destruction like this,” said UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) water and sanitation specialist Branislav Jekic, after the agency conducted preliminary assessments in southern Lebanon. “Wherever we go, we ask people what they need most and the answer is always the same - water.”

Displaced Lebanese in Syria began packing their belongings as soon as the UN sponsored cessation of hostilities went into effect at 08:00 local time on August 14, 2006. (Photo courtesy IFRC)

UNICEF says that in 10 out of 12 war affected communities visited by agency personnel, underground pipes and other water infrastructure has been seriously damaged or destroyed.

The Israeli bombardment of the Jiyyah power plant south of Beirut in mid-July spilled 10,000 to 15,000 metric tons of heavy fuel into the sea. Winds and currents have pushed the oil north to Tartous in Syria. The pollution from the oil spill has effected private and public rocky and sandy beaches as well as private and public ports and marinas and fishermen’s wharves.

Aerial surveys, by helicopter and by plane are now underway to determine the extent of the spill since the Israeli Environment Minister Monday gave assurance of safe passage for surveillance planes.

Speaking in Brussels, Fouad Hamdan, director of Friends of the Earth Europe, said, "Local environmental groups in Lebanon are ready to send hundreds of volunteers to the beaches to start massive cleanup operations. But they need basic materials like boots, shovels and buckets. This is where the EU can help without bureaucratic hurdles so that cleanup work can finally move from the stage of planning to implementation."

The Israeli Defense Forces bombed the Jiyyah power plant south of Beirut on July 13 and 15, spilling up to 35,000 metric tons of oil into the Mediterranean Sea. (Photo courtesy MOE)

In addition to the oil catastrophe, Hezbollah missiles and Israeli bombing led to hundreds of fires destroying large forest areas in both countries. In Israel, more then half a million trees have been burned in about 500 fires. Planning for sustainable reforestation should now begin both in Israel and in Lebanon, environmental groups advise.

A team from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, today destroyed more unexploded ordnance in the south of the country in a controlled explosion, the mission said today. UNIFIL is conducting humanitarian work for Lebanese civilians and also coordinates troop movements as part of the international agreement signed August 14 that ended the recent fighting.

Unexploded ordnance litters many areas in the south of Lebanon and will take months to clear, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said yesterday, warning that de-mining will take up to six months in the region of Nabatiye alone. UN agencies now are working with the government on a public awareness campaign on the dangers posed by the unexploded ordnance.

Since the beginning of the crisis on July 12, more than a quarter of a million liters of bottled water have been sent to some of the worst-hit communities including Bint Jubail, Ait el Shaab and Tibnin. UNICEF says that around 50,000 liters a week are being sent south by truck, but this quantity will more than double by the weekend.

UNIFIL said it is keeping up its distribution of clean water to villages in the south, handing out 45,000 liters of drinking water in El Khiam, Kafer Kela and Ebel Es Saqi.

The lead UN agency for the logistics of transporting humanitarian aid to and within Lebanon, the World Food Programme has launched a three month US$8.9 million emergency operation to feed over 300,000 people in Lebanon and Syria.