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Policy Makers

Loans available to enterprise to implement pollution control projects

The development and implementation of comprehensive a National Action Plan on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) is an important contribution to sustainable development. Lebanon is a country that has already devoted efforts and expertise in the elaboration of its Action Plan, mainly on the Litani Basin and Qaraoun Lake. The Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Industry and SwitchMed have joined forces to make this true. We learn more on the state of the plan.

Lebanon’s rivers are alarmingly polluted with untreated sewage and waste, posing health risks for consumers who use the water at home and for farmers who irrigate their crops with it, local scientists warned. In particular, the upper Litani River basin and Lake Qaraoun suffer from a serious water pollution problem which is due to uncontrolled solid and liquid domestic and industrial waste disposal practices, in addition to agrochemical contamination and lack of sustainable wastewater management. This situation has caused negative water use impacts on public health, environment, and socio-economic development.

 

¨The National Action Plan can bring solutions to reverse negative trends and establish sustainable water management practices¨ said Mr. Bassam Sabbagh, Head of Urban Environment Service of the Ministry of Environment¨

 

In order to assist the implementation of this action plan, the Ministry of Environment, has launched a joint initiative related to the pollution abatement for industries together with the Banque Du Liban and funded by the World Bank and the Italian Cooperation. The Lebanon Environmental Pollution Abatement Project or LEPAP aims to reduce industrial pollution in targeted industrial enterprises and to strengthen the monitoring and enforcement capabilities of the Ministry of Environment.

LEPAP will set up a mechanism for financing the abatement of industrial pollution in targeted industrial enterprises through offering concessional loans by commercial banks through BDL at near zero interest rates. In total, it is estimated to provide up to these type of loans to 20-25 public and private enterprises in order to bring air emissions, effluent discharges, and industrial waste generation towards compliance with national environmental standards in a cost-effective manner. LEPAP will also provide necessary technical assistance to industries in order to respond to the technical requirements for accessing the loans in line with the national regulations.

In the next two stories, SwitchMed will write about the actions that Lebanon is carrying on reducing the environmental and human impact resulting from the untreated waste generated by the slaughterhouses and how the wine industry can become more sustainable.