Lebanon Oil Spill Spells
Environmental CatastropheBy Alice Gray
21 August, 2006
Countercurrents.orgAs if the murder of 1,300 civilians and the wide scale destruction of homes and property were not enough, Lebanon's population will suffer for years to come from the effects of the massive oil spill caused by an Israeli attack on the Jiyyeh power station on July 14th. Due to the unrelenting violence over the last month, it has so far been impossible for remedial action to be taken.
The oil slick now covers 170 km of Lebanon's coastline and is drifting north to Syria. There is concern that it may reach the coasts of Turkey and Cyprus, where it will also pose health risks to the civilian populations. The uncontained oil spill has also poisoned the marine environment, killing fish and birds and further adding to Lebanon's troubles by ruining the fishing industry.
The fuel oil contains a toxic cocktail of chemicals including benzene, a Class 1 carcinogen. Volatile, carcinogenic chemicals have dispersed into the air, in a 'toxic spray' that has drifted over Beirut, putting the health of its 2 million inhabitants at grave risk.
Following the ceasefire that went into effect on Monday, UN, EU and IMO (International Maritime Organization) officials met for crisis talks on Thursday in the Greek town of Piraeus. It is anticipated that a team of volunteers led by experts will clean up the coastline bit by bit. However, due to the delay in dealing with the oil spill, grave damage has already been done to the marine environment and it may take up to 10 years for the coastline to recover.The clean-up operation will cost millions of dollars, which can be added to the $1.6 billion dollar Israeli war costs and the as yet unquantified reconstruction costs in Lebanon.
The cost in human lives from the toxic poisoning and cancer caused by the oil spill can be added to the 1,300 dead Lebanese civilians, uncounted dead Hezbollah fighters and the 154 dead Israelis (117 of them soldiers).
The consequences, if the ceasefire does not hold will not just be catastrophic politically, the "collateral damage" will not be limited to the direct effect of the missiles and bombs. If violence resumes, the environmental clean-up operation will be de-railed and this will have catastrophic consequences for the east Mediterranean marine and coastal environment, the livelihoods of the people dependent upon it, and the health of the millions of people affected by the toxic chemicals released into the air, water and foodchain.
When it is explained to us once again by chuntering politicians why it was necessary to wreak so much destruction and kill so many people for the sake of releasing two captive soldiers who would sooner have been released through negotiation, who ultimately will still be released by negotiation we should recall the Jiyyeh power station and the oil spill.
Because it was not destroyed by mistake. The politicians will say again and again that they 'had no choice' but to go to war, that Hezbollah are terrorists who must be destroyed, that they are cowards who shelter behind civilians, that they are an intolerable security risk to the State of Israel. Even if all of these things were true, it would not justify the destruction of the eastern Mediterranean environment and the indiscriminate poisoning of the civilian populations of Lebanon and Syria.
War does not stop when the soldiers go home. Death does not stop when the bullets stop flying. The pain and suffering of millions does not end when the journalists move on.
The Israeli-Hizbollah war has been a tragedy from start to finish, punctuated by slaughter, war crimes and crass disregard for human life and the environment.
See images of the oil spill at http://www.cleanupoil.com/gallery.htmAlice Gray is a British environmental scientist working at the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (www.arij.org); a Palestinian NGO based in Bethlehem, the West Bank, Palestine.
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