Oil Spill and Waste due to Conflict: The Case of Lebanon
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efforts resulted in different estimates of the generated quantities of demolition waste. This subsection presents the available information as of April 2007 and adopts the most recent government estimate as an input to the analysis. Beirut’s southern suburbs—UNDP reported that about 150 residential buildings were destroyed, each building containing an average of 30 units, for a total of 4,500 units (UNDP 2006). Other buildings had been damaged or partially demolished. A joint effort between the Municipality of Haret Hreik and the Department of Architecture and Graphic Design at the American University of Beirut assessed 102 completely demolished buildings, 28 partially blasted buildings, and 70 damaged buildings in August 2006, as the set of images in photo 6.6 depict. A rapid preliminary damage assessment by the European Commission’s Joint Research Center and the European Union Satellite Center indicated that 326 residential buildings were either damaged or destroyed in the southern suburbs, of which 269 were in Haret Hreik (EC 2006b). The Order of Engineering in Beirut assessed 200 destroyed buildings and an additional 100 inhabitable buildings (GoL 2006b). South and Baalbek El-Hermel—The study team conducted a field survey in October and November 2006 during the preparation of this study. Interviews with heads of municipalities revealed that more than 8,790 housing units were demolished in the South. Most are concentrated in the Cazas of Marjeyoun, Nabatieh, Bent Jbeil, and Tyre, with relatively less destruction in the Cazas of Hasbaya and Saida. In Baalbek El-Hermel, the field visit revealed that the hostilities affected more than 6,000 housing units, of which 375 were destroyed, 400 badly damaged, and the rest severely to lightly damaged. Based on this information, the authors’ own estimate of the quantity of demolition waste generated varies between 2 million to 3.7 million cubic meters, as shown in table 6.12. A UNDP-sponsored initiative to assess the environmental damage of the July hostilities estimated the total volume of rubble resulting from destruction in the range of 2.5 million to 3 million cubic meters (UNDP 2007). Based on an August 2007 communication with the office of the President of the Council of Ministers (PCM), the latest figures indicate 11,140 housing units destroyed, 1,249 housing units partially destroyed, and 81,000 housing units lightly damaged in the South and the Baalback