GREENPEACE CALLS ON LEBANESE AUTHORITIES TO STOP MARINE POLLUTION

7 September 2000

BEIRUT -- Greenpeace activists today delivered 18 containers filled with polluted sludge from the Mediterranean seabed off the north Lebanese coast to the Lebanese Environment Ministry in Beirut. The polluted sludge was collected yesterday by inflatables launched from the MV Greenpeace anchored off the coast of Selaata. Greenpeace is calling for the government’s intervention to stop the Lebanese Chemical Company (LCC), which manufactures phosphate fertiliser for European agricultural markets, from using the Mediterranean Sea as a dumping ground. Twenty Greenpeace activists also displayed a banner at the entrance to the ministry reading "EMPTY TALK - EMPTY SEAS". Greenpeace urged the Lebanese Government to replace empty commitments with real action and ratify the protocols in the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and Coastal Region of the Mediterranean.

Zeina al-Hajj, Greenpeace campaigner in Lebanon and two other activists approached the ministry with three jars of the hazardous waste requesting a meeting with the Director General, Berj Hatjian. Greenpeace is demanding a time frame to phase out industrial toxic discharges in Selaata.

Hatjian, in contradiction to the ministry’s previous declarations, publicly admitted that a grave problem exists in Selaata and that the Ministry will demand an assessment from LCC including plans to reduce pollution. He also added that the ministry will push ratification of the Barcelona Convention at the cabinet meeting in October.

"Greenpeace will ensure that the commitments made today will finally lead to real action taken to stop the pollution. Lebanon, like other developing countries in the Mediterranean, must realise that economic development is unjustified if the price to be paid is the environment and human health. The Minister of Environment is providing companies such as LCC with a license to kill. The company continues to capitalise on polluting production processes through the sale of the major part of its production to European markets where it is then dispersed onto their soils," said al-Hajj.

LCC, located in Selaata, is a phosphate fertiliser company that exports over 70 percent of its production to Western Europe, mainly Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Belgium, and the UK. The company has been discharging toxic sludge, phosphogypsum, together with 25,000 cubic metres of acidic cooling water daily from its pipes directly into the bay of Selaata since 1957. The sludge has accumulated over the years in multiple layers covering an area over one kilometre away from the coast surrounding the plant. Samples taken from the discharge pipes by Greenpeace reveal heavy metals such as cadmium and vanadium. Vanadium is known to cause liver damage. Cadmium is a known carcinogen and is highly toxic even at low concentrations. Cadmium build-up can cause kidney damage and lead to a weakening of the bones in animals and humans exposed to elevated levels of the chemical either through occupational exposure or the food chain.

"Lebanon must ratify the Barcelona Convention as the first step towards the formulation of a policy that will effectively eliminate those substances included as priority contaminants for elimination from discharges into the sea under Annex 1 of the Land-Based Sources Protocol in the Convention. The lack of action on their part continues to endorse the environmental degradation and health hazards posed by companies such as LCC," added al-Hajj.

The MV Greenpeace Mediterranean Tour has visited Turkey, Greece and Cyprus before its arrival in Lebanon. The ship will visit additional countries in the region conducting research, investigating pollution and demanding that governments replace rhetoric with effective measures to stop pollution into the Mediterranean Sea.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Zeina al-Hajj, Greenpeace campaigner in Lebanon, on mobile +961 1 3755100
- Greenpeace Mediterranean office in Lebanon on +961 1 785665
- Caroline Muscat, Campaign & Communications Director, on +356 942 9964

For further information on this story or on other Toxics stories please visit www.greenpeace.org/~toxics

A press brief on the Barcelona Convention together with a detailed update on the ship’s activities so far are available on the Greenpeace Mediterranean website: www.greenpeacemed.org.mt