UN to study Lebanon environment
October 3, 2006
A team of experts co-ordinated by the UN is beginning an investigation into how the recent conflict with Israel has damaged Lebanon's environment.
The team will look at the oil slick along Lebanon's coast caused by bombing of a power station, pollution of water supplies and unexploded ordnance.
The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) convened the team at the request of the Lebanese government.
It anticipates making a comprehensive report by the end of the year.
Oil from the Jiyyeh power station, hit during a bombing raid in July, has contaminated 140km (80 miles) of coast.
Between 10,000 and 30,000 tonnes of fuel oil flowed into the Mediterranean. By comparison, the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska totalled 40,000 tonnes.
Health and fertility
Unep believes that other aspects of the country's environment now need attention.
"There is an urgent need to assess the environmental legacy of the recent conflict and put in place a comprehensive clean-up of polluted and health-hazardous sites," said Unep's secretary-general, Achim Steiner.
"Work is on-going to deal with the oil spill on the Lebanese coast; but we must now look at the wider impacts as they relate to issues such as underground and surface water supplies, coastal contamination and the health and fertility of the land."
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