Layers of sludge “as much as two meters thick” drift offshore of Lebanon’s capital, and citizens say decades of backed-up raw sewage have made the Beirut River smell “unbearable.”
Critics blame government apathy and incompetence, the Daily Star reports, and complain that new treatment plants are years from completion. One conservationist said U.S. funding for 42 wastewater facilities has produced only a handful that are even “partially” functional.
Source:
“Untreated waste fouls Lebanese waterways”
Lebanon Daily Star, December 29, 2006