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Friends of the Earth welcomes EU plan to help Lebanon deal with oil catastrophe

Israeli army must guarantee that cleanup operations will be safe

Brussels, 3 August 2006 - Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) today welcomed efforts by the EU to help Lebanon deal with an oil spill along its coastline - the biggest environmental disaster ever to hit the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Some 10,000-35,000 tons of heavy fuel oil have been released into the sea over the past week after Israeli planes bombed the tanks of the Jieh power plant, 30 kilometres south of Beirut.

Due to the south-north currents, the oil carpet has already polluted most of the Lebanese coastline and areas south of the Syrian port city of Tartus. It may reach Turkey in the coming days. (1)

FoEE director Fouad Hamdan said: "Lebanon is experiencing an environmental crisis in the middle of the ongoing war between Israel and the Hizbullah party on its territory. It is a catastrophe in the midst of a tragedy. The international community must impose a ceasefire and stop the killing at once. And a massive cleanup operation must start as soon as possible to help save the eastern Mediterranean Sea." (2)

"In Lebanon, civic society and the authorities can quickly mobilize thousands of volunteers to cleanup the coastline, remove the oil from beaches and store it in tanks. But to be able to do so, the international community must first convince the Israeli army to guarantee that its air force would not bomb volunteers on the ground," he noted.

"It is a matter of urgency to send special boats swiftly to Lebanon to suck as much oil from the sea surface as possible. The more oil that washes ashore or solidifies and sinks to the bottom of the sea, the worse the environmental and health impact will be," Hamdan added.

EU experts are currently in Beirut advising Environment Ministry officials.
Lebanon has requested urgent help from the European Commission's DG Environment to mobilise the help of European Member States in cleaning up the oil pollution. The assistance may have the form of significant amounts of dispersants, booms, absorbents, skimmers, as well as specialised boats and any other materials or equipment needed. (3)

Fuel oil along the Lebanese coast is currently taking the form of a thick and soft mass similar to fluid asphalt. It is highly toxic and kills all marine life. It is carcinogenic and impacts the hormone systems of all living beings. On northern Lebanese beaches near the town of Tripoli, the already endangered green turtles have buried their eggs. They baby turtles start to hatch now but have little hope of completing their first fateful journey across the beach to the water.

Coastal fishery will be doomed for years to come and the livelihood of fishermen destroyed. The country's emerging tourism industry is struck at its heart.

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For more information, please contact:

Fouad Hamdan, Director of Friends of the Earth Europe: +32 25 42 01 83,
Mobile: +32 485 656675, email: fouad.hamdan@foeeurope.org

Rosemary Hall, Communications Officer at Friends of the Earth Europe: +32 25
42 61 05, Mobile: +32 485 930515, email: rosemary.hall@foeeurope.org

NOTES:

1) See images from the EC Civil Protection Unit, dated August 1:
http://www.zki.dlr.de/applications/2006/lebanon/lebanon_2006_en.html

2) Fouad Hamdan is a Lebanese and German national who established
Greenpeace in Lebanon in 1994-1999.

3) The EU's Mechanism for Civil Protection facilitates cooperation in
civil protection assistance interventions. It ensures the coordination of assistance intervention in order to provide prompt support and to assist a country in need of help. Such activities are coordinated by the Commission through the activation of its Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), located in DG Environment, Civil Protection Unit.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/civil/index.htm

More Info:

. The Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the
Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC) is one of the MAP Regional Activities Centres and is based in Malta. It is jointly administered by the UN International Maritime Organization and UNEP-MAP. For further information please contact Luisa Colasimone, UNEP/MAP, +30 6 949 122 746. REMPEC helps Mediterranean coastal states build up their national prevention and response capabilities to be prepared for major marine pollution incidents.

. DG Environment:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/1078&format=HT
ML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

. The Lebanese NGO Green Line:
http://greenline.org.lb/new/english/news20060727.html

Friends of the Earth Europe campaigns for sustainable and fair societies and for the protection of the environment,
unites more than 30 national organisations with thousands of local groups
and is part of the world's largest grassroots environmental network, Friends of the Earth International.

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