Norwegian Charge d'affairs Aud Lise Norheim recently visited oil-polluted sites in Lebanon. They are being cleaned after the war in 2006, and Norway is funding the programme.
21/02/2008 :: During the war between Lebanon and Israel last summer, 15.000 tons of oil was spilled along the coast of Lebanon. The pollution was a result of the bombing of an oil-plant south of Lebanon.
Therefore Norway granted over one million USD to Lebanon in november 2007, to remove the oil from the coast. The project is called Lebanon Coast Oil Spill Clean-up, and started almost immediately.
Last thursday Norwegian Charge d'affairs Aud Lise Norheim went to visit the sites with a delegation. She met with Mrs. Ghada Mitri from the environmental department in Lebanon, and the greek company EPE who is managing the clean-up. The delegation visited four of the six sites.
" I am impressed by the work I have seen, and this project also shows the need for a system to prevent this from happening again", Mrs. Norheim says.
The sites are located in the areas of Tripoli, Jounieh and the border of Syria. Some of them have already been cleaned, while the work is still going on in others. It takes about three weeks to clean a site.
To remove the oil from the rocks along the coast, the workers use high- pressure seawater that has been pumped from the ocean. Therefore the method is environmentally- friendly, leaving no chemicals in the sea. The clean- up has been successfull.
"The financial support from Norway is first of all important for the environment along the coast, but also for the tourist industry and for fishermen who depend upon resources in the sea to make a living", says minister of the Norwegian Environment and International Department, Erik Solheim, about the project.
Norway contributed with a total funding of 15,5 million USD to various projects in Lebanon last year.
By the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Beirut