Catastrophe in the midst of a tragedy

On January 24, 2007, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released a report about the environmental impact of the war in Lebanon between Israel and the Lebanese Muslim Shiite group Hizbullah in the summer of the previous year.

Clashes and massive bombings started on July 12, 2006. By the time a ceasefire halted the fighting five weeks later on 14th August, about 1,300 people had been killed and thousands more injured on both sides of the border. In addition to the human tragedy, the environment in the Middle East took numerous blows.



Edde Beach, north of Beirut. The official sign, aimed at the tourists who had normally enjoyed the beach, ironically reads: "The beach is your's - protect it"

Friends of the Earth Europe is still concerned that a "second round" of fighting could start at any moment because all underlying political problems have not been solved. We call for a just and peaceful solution of the conflict, to prevent more losses of innocent lives and the destruction of the environment in Lebanon and Israel.

The UNEP report, carried out by a unit of its Post Conflict Branch, said that "serious and in some cases widespread environmental challenges are confronting the Lebanese authorities as a result of the recent conflict".

Many of the bombed and burnt out factories and industrial complexes are contaminated with toxic and health hazardous substances. "Urgent action is needed to remove and safely dispose of such substances, which include ash and leaked chemicals amid concerns they represent a threat to water supplies and public health. The sheer scale of the debris is overwhelming existing municipal dump sites and waste management regimes," UNEP said.

The report also stresses the importance of rapidly removing unexploded Israeli cluster bombs, especially in the south of Lebanon where large areas of economically important agricultural land have become useless for farmers. "Wide-spread damage to Lebanon's water supply and sewage networks present a risk of groundwater contamination and a potential public health hazard," it added.

The UNEP team found out that oil pollution to the marine environment has been largely contained and contamination levels appear to be generally typical of coastal areas of that part of the Mediterranean. Detailed field tests and analysis of samples have found no evidence that Israeli shells used contained depleted uranium or another kind of radioactive material.


Oil spill hit Lebanon and Syria

In Lebanon in mid July 2006, Israeli warplanes bombed the oil-fuelled power plant of Jiyyeh, located directly on the coastline about 30 kilometres south of Beirut. Storage tanks caught fire and polluted the air for several days. Between 15,000-30.000 tons of heavy fuel spilled into the Mediterranean Sea. No one knows exactly how much was burnt and how much was spilled. Most of the Lebanese coastline north of Jiyyeh and some parts of Syria's shore have been affected.

Today, most of the visible pollution along the coastline has been removed. The sea reflects an azure blue, but beneath the surface many areas are covered with small pieces of heavy fuel oil up poisons marine life and the water. In the years to come, strong currents and winds will regularly wash hardened oil chunks from the sea bed to the coastlines in Israel, Lebanon and Syria.

Satellite pictures of the Lebanese coastline, showing the progression of the oil spill over a week during the crisis. Centre for Satellite Based Crisis Information. Latest shots

Lebanese activists from Green Line, the Association of Lebanese Divers, Greenpeace and Bahr Lubnan documented the pollution and actively participated in the cleanup work last summer. Greenpeace's flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, visited Lebanon in September 2006 and its crew helped authorities in assessing the damage. From Brussels, Friends of the Earth Europe gave advice and carried out lobby work.

The Lebanese Center for Scientific Research (CSR) said on October 20th, 2006, that analysis of fish samples along the coast has not shown any significant contamination, and that fish was safe for consumption.

The European Union had sent advisors to Lebanon and provided help to Lebanon, in coordination with UNEP, the International Maritime Organisation and with regional institutions.

In Israel, authorities have rejected calls by Friends of the Earth Europe to ask UNEP to conduct a similar assessment on its territory.

We believe that assessing the environmental impact of the war in Lebanon and Israel by the professional and independent UNEP team is crucial. The purpose is to remove politics from the issue of environmental protection. Documenting the consequences of war on the shared environment of Israel and Lebanon highlights the loss to both nations, and may lead to Hizbullah and the Israeli army thinking twice before starting a deadly "second round".


Forest fires in Israel and Lebanon

During the five weeks of fighting in 2006, large forest areas in the northern Israeli region of Galilee were burnt down due to missiles fired by Hizbullah. Israeli authorities estimated that 9,000 acres of land, including about 3,000 acres of forest, were damaged by fire in the first four weeks of cross-border fighting. About half a million trees were destroyed. Firemen, aided by planes spraying fire retardant on the fires, had battled almost 500 fires.

The Israeli forests hit hardest by the Hizbullah rocket attacks are in Biria, Beit Keshet, Shlomi, Meron and in the Naftali mountain range. Israeli experts predicted that it may take the damaged forests up to 60 years to recover to the state they were in before the war.
Across the border in southern Lebanon, forest fires also raged after Israeli bombings.