شارك رئيس المجلس البلدي في الحازمية السيد جان الياس الأسمر مع عدد من قادة الحكومات المحلية العالمية، نذكر منهم اليابان، تركيا، بيرو، النيبال وبورما، في مؤتمر الكتروني من تنظيم UNHABITAT حول أهمية فرز النفايات في المصدر، وضرورة التشبيك مع مكونات المجتمع المحلي المدني لنشر ثقافة الفرز وما لها من ايجابيات بيئية واقتصادية. وكان عرض لدور بلدية الحازمية الرائد في هذه التجربة، خصوصاً مع اللجان الشبابية، وألقى الرئيس الأسمر الكلمة التالية:

MrsMaimunah Sharif
Mr Andre Dzikus,
Distinguished Waste Wise Cities guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today it is my greatest pleasure to be with you and welcome you ladies and gentleman in this Webinar.
As you know, in Lebanon we are reputed by our hospitality, by the beauty of our nature, our moderate weather and tasty food.

Hazmieh is a less than 3 square kms city in the center of Mount Lebanon with 50,000 residents
Hazmieh is considered a part of greater Beirut. It is located in the southern suburbs of Beirut, at a distance of 6 km from the capital.Thanks to its strategic location and its Local Authority master planning process, Hazmieh have become the city of successful international investments with more than 2.500 commercial units that include services such as embassies/banking/ insurance/ hotels/ hospitals and medical clinics/ commercial areas / a melting pot of restaurants.
Many challenges are facing us especially at this time, where we are witnessing a socio-economic crisis, a devaluation of the local currency, Health crisis especially facing the COVID19, and the waste treatment problem…

All of them to be added to many other challenges that we are facing everyday; and many questions we’re asking trying to find their solutions;

So, I will share some of them with you…
What kind of Lebanon would we like to live in 10 years from now?What kind of Lebanon would we like our grandchildren to grow up in?
In a polluted environment?...

As Lebanese Local authorities, we would like to work on a local level, to offer healthy cities where we will reduce the impact of garbage, improve the quality of water and reduce the air pollution. We want to transform our cities into Waste Wise Cities.

Hard work and resources are needed to create a better Lebanon.

Yes, there are many boundaries to overcome: the corruption, the lack of vision and action, the bad influence of leaders and officials, etc..

Lebanon has been going through a waste crisis since 2014. Unfortunately, we still don’t have sustainable solutions. The key doesn’t only start with reforms coming from the government, but also at individual and local levels.

Here, Hazmieh Municipality, since 2014, has taken over the mission to tackle the issue in a decentralized manner; collaborating with the civil society and the private sector to find a sustainable solution for this problem.

- We adopted a comprehensive waste management PPP MODEL at Hazmieh Municipality that showcased a model to the entire region.

 - We raised awareness through social media and printed brochures as well as door-to-door visits.

- Containers have been distributed by the municipality in order to encourage the citizen to continue the waste sorting process.

The aim of these awareness sessions is to convince citizens to reuse and reduce their waste by sorting it at source, in two different bags.

Now we are facing the same waste problem of 2014… companies delegated from the government will stop soon taking our garbage. Because of the current volatile bad situation, citizens are not adhering to waste sorting. They’ve lost hope in everything…

With your help and support of Manara Municipality, we can inspire and we can surely make a difference.

We are ready to take the lead, to put a strong focus on this issue and to be the pilot sub urban municipality to develop strategies and action plans once and for all according to your guidance and experience, for health and environment reasons, and also for economic reasons.

But we need to do this right with the support on a National Level; we need to adopt the new law on Solid Waste Management in Parliament. The country needs a legal framework that is up to date with new technologies and processes happening in full consultation with municipalities and Unions of Municipalities, the civil society and the private sector.

At this stage, we also highly recommend you to provide the required assistance and expertise to support also the Lebanese government to adopt an effective& strict waste managementlaw.

Because as Khalil Gibran reminded us: “Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.”

You are here to help and we have the will to progress…

Thank you everyone for listening; Looking forward to become a Waste Wise City if circumstances allow us to be…