130
The Cost of Environmental Degradation
Table 6.20 Estimated Range of UXO Damage Cost to Agricultural Productivity US$ millions Assumptions for damage cost estimation under each scenario First year
Second year
Losses of 10% of annual production value under the low-bound scenario and of 25% under the high-bound scenario Losses of 5% of annual production value under the low-bound scenario and of 10% under the high-bound scenario
TOTAL
Low-bound scenario
High-bound scenario
26.8
67.0
13.4 40.2
26.8 93.8
Source: Authors’ calculations.
US$5.5 million has been allocated to demining.63 If one assumes two years of operations until demining would be complete, the total cost is estimated at US$11 million. Overall, the damage caused by UXOs is estimated to range between US$65 million and US$214 million, as table 6.21 presents. It is a conservative estimate, because it does not consider other impacts such as that of UXOs on forests.
Damage Costs of Medical Waste The increase in casualties and hospital bed occupancy generated an estimated 200 to 250 tons of medical waste (UNDP 2007). Health-care waste can be grouped into two broad categories: nonrisk waste and risk waste.64 Because of the lack of data regarding the composition of the medical waste produced during hostilities, we assume that no segregation is practiced, and therefore the generated waste is infectious. This requires sterilization at a cost of US$60 per ton, followed by disposal with regular solid waste at an operational landfill in the country, at a cost of US$15 to US$120 per ton.65 Therefore, the cost of handling the medical waste generated during the hostilities (including treatment, transport, and disposal) ranges between US$15,000 and US$45,000. Shipping of hazardous waste in accordance with the Basel Convention on the Transfrontier Shipment of Hazardous Waste would cost US$10,000 per ton. However, this option has not been considered in this analysis, because, to the best of our knowledge, shipment of infectious medical waste has never been practiced in Lebanon.66 Given the large quantities of