Six months after thousands of tons of fuel oil spilled into the Mediterranean when Israel bombed the Jiyyeh power plant, the waters are still spitting out black poison despite efforts to clean up the mess.
"The rain and the low tide have created new pollution zones," Ahmed Kojok of the Sea of Lebanon association told Agence France Presse.
On Beirut's sun-splashed Ramlet al-Bayda beach, a human chain passed buckets filled with large black chunks -- mixtures of fuel oil, sand and debris -- which were emptied by a volunteer into large white watertight bags.
"It's sad," muttered a fisherman who works for the association, running his fingers over dozens of seashells mucked together in a sticky glob.
The coast was polluted by around 15,000 tons of fuel oil after Israel bombed the plant south of Beirut in mid-July during its 34-day offensive against Hizbullah.
Since then, local and international civic groups and the Lebanese environment ministry have been waging a long battle against the black sludge that seeped into the sea.
A recent report by the European Commission's Monitoring and Information Center said "virtually all free oil at sea or in the harbors and marinas had been recovered by the end of September (2006)."
But many beaches like Jiyyeh and Ramlet al-Bayda continue to fight the pollution.
Greenpeace has described the spill, which polluted about 150 kilometers of the Lebanese coast, as an "underwater nightmare" and a "timebomb" because oil had sunk to the seabed. The environmental group has estimated it will take at least a year to clean the oil.
Over the course of six days, the Sea of Lebanon association filled 18 bags with around two tons of pestilent sludge.
"And we still have another week of work here," association member Mohammed al-Sarji said.
The team recently spent three weeks in Jiyyeh, where it gathered 122 bags of oil waste.
"In some places the dry fuel sludge was 40 to 60 centimeters thick. We were slicing it like cheese," said Kojok.
Ghada Mitri, spokesperson for the environment ministry, said that so far 1,100 cubic meters of liquid fuel and 5,440 cubic meters of debris, sand and muck had been extracted.
She said she hoped the clean-up will be finished "before summer" but declined to commit to a more precise timeframe.
Several obstacles could hamper the cleaning progress. Among them are the resignation of Environment Minister Yaacub Sarraf and the political crisis gripping the country.(AFP-Naharnet)
Beirut, 22 Jan 07, 10:23
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