On 17 February 2019, Minister of Interior and Municipalities Raya El Hassan told Elnashra that “she will rigorously apply the law pertaining to quarries and implement the decisions issued by the National Council for Quarries and Crushers with regard to meeting the conditions required for their operation”. While she also expressed her concern about environmental crimes in Lebanon, she singled out “the rampant quarries and deformation of nature that you see when you go to North Governorate between Chekka and Amioun”. It is not unusual for the minister to emphasize these quarries, which are probably the most enormous and damaging to their surroundings, though those visible to travelers along the Chekka-Amioun road are only a fraction of all the quarries that the cement companies Holcim and Al Sabeh operate in the area. This was documented by The Legal Agenda in its special issue titled Koura in the Dragon’s Mouth [al-Kura fi Famm al-Tanin].

El Hassan then said in an interview with al-Amn that, “There’s a real promise: I will, as minister of interior, stay out of the system of client services to which many in the country have become accustomed, and [I will] vigorously apply the laws, especially regarding the quarries issue. I will strive to serve those who actually need it within the framework of the law and far removed from political patronage”. While declaring her intent to work with impartiality and integrity (as every citizen hopes) was a positive move, her remarks remain extremely grave as they officially confirm the practices followed by previous ministers of interior regarding the quarries, practices based on clientelism and political patronage.

Adding to the gravity of El Hassan’s remarks is that she implicitly confirmed, in the conclusion of her previous interview with Elnashra, that her predecessor’s (or predecessors’) practices actually exceeded the authority that the law vests in this ministry. This was clearly evident in her statement that she will resort “to the National Council for Quarries and Crushers and the Ministry of Environment, within whose scope this issue falls, so that they may examine whether the quarries fulfill the required environmental conditions or request that their operations be suspended”.

When, on 20 February 2019, Minister of Environment Fadi Jreissati confirmed in a tweet that El Hassan had kept her promise to refer the cases to the Ministry of Environment, he added some very valuable information: the referral encompassed more than 150 cases of quarries.[1]

 

These very important statements, which went unnoticed in public debate, warrant several key observations:

 

1- Protection Instruments are Null and Void

When El Hassan confirmed that the Ministry of Interior has no authority to permit the operation of quarries, she merely admitted what is legally obvious. The texts in this area are very clear and unambiguous: they vest this authority in the National Council for Quarries and Crushers and the Ministry of Environment. Note that the authority competent to license quarries is determined not by organizational or political considerations (i.e. criteria concerning power sharing or authorities among the ministries or the political forces that assume them) but entirely by specialization and the safeguards that these texts stipulate to minimize environmental damage. The most important of these safeguards limit the construction of quarries to certain geographical areas that are generally distant from populated areas and groundwater, as well as impose certain procedures for digging, extracting rock, operating sand quarries, and rehabilitating the sites.

These texts were enacted in 2002 following a plethora of environmentally destructive activities that triggered social protests. The laws were presented, after much postponement, as a national gain, but the practices of the Ministry of Interior overstepped these texts and undermined all these safeguards. In most cases, the ministry did so by sending illegal instructions to the governors and the Internal Security Forces prohibiting them from taking any measure against the quarries that it had decided to grant protection. These instructions are what I described in the above heading as “protection instruments”.

Overstepping these powers in this manner also deprives the state of potential fees accrued on account of such activities. Hence, this excess results in the violation of not only the “polluter pays” principle stipulated in the Environment Protection Law but, before that, the principle of equality in bearing public burdens, i.e. what any citizen, whether a polluter or otherwise, must pay to the state on account of their activities within its borders. Today, what the polluter may pay (probably in exchange for protection instruments) is a kickback or bribe that settles in the pockets of the few rather than the public treasury.

One of the natural consequences is that all the “licenses” previously granted are null and void and as good as nonexistent because they were issued by an incompetent authority. Hence, they should be immediately suspended. Legally, this conclusion is almost self-evident per established doctrine and jurisprudence, and it necessitates the immediate cessation of all these activities pending a study of them by the aforementioned competent authorities.

 

2- The Great Corruption

El Hassan’s statements confirm just as clearly that these licenses can be considered a form of political patronage and clientelism. Therefore, we are facing, at the very least, administrative corruption based on exploiting influence to grant benefits to supporters or clients in contravention of the law. Furthermore, given the enormity of the profits earned from such activities and given (unfortunately) Lebanese customs , we are probably also facing financial corruption based on exploiting influence to grant benefits in exchange for monetary bribes, i.e. the so-called “political money” or, more correctly, kickbacks. It is no exaggeration to say that the corruption we are facing is one of the greatest forms – if not the greatest – of corruption.

This is evident not only from the number of quarries operating throughout Lebanon (at least 150 according to Jreissati’s tweet, i.e. one case for every 69 square kilometers), but also, and in particular, from the grave damage they do to all components of the environment and, subsequently, to basic living conditions. By undermining the environmental caveats and safeguards stipulated by law, this corruption not only enriches the quarry owners (and political forces if financial corruption occurred) but also, and more importantly, causes grave environmental and vital damages, especially as it occurs without any of the legally stipulated procedures being followed. Many are the quarries (especially those located in the Koura region, which El Hassan saw with her own eyes) that erode all components of the environment, from the water to the air, to the soil to the landscape, and thereby destroy production sectors, some of which are old and very productive. Many, too, are the quarries that, via the dust they agitate, increase the rates of lung diseases and cancers that cause deaths, all without any accountability. In other words, the corruption we are facing is corruption that gnaws away at and destroys our environment, corruption that desecrates the most valuable thing that the state departments must protect (living conditions), corruption that pollutes and kills.

Hence, just as the corruption of the quarries (and kickbacks) erodes the institutions and departments of the state, it erodes the environment to the point of causing death and destruction. It is no exaggeration to say that this case reveals that the country is now perched upon a volcano of corruption spitting out lava and destroying everything.

 

3- Upon Discovering Corruption of this Magnitude, What is to be Done?

Given the above, what is to be done? This question we pose to all political forces, and the question becomes more pressing the worse the destruction – which is enormous and cannot be disregarded – grows. It is possible for these forces to remain silent or accommodate each other in minor corruption cases, but if this silence continues in a case where the corruption reaches the point of causing death and destruction, then these forces have no credibility. Three steps are needed in this regard:

The first step, which appears to be the most pressing, is to adopt immediate decisions to shut down these quarries. The licensing of quarries should be preceded by a study of whether the environmental conditions required for their operation are met because checking these conditions is not a luxury but a fundamental precondition for granting a license to begin operation. Shutting down the quarries is even more necessary in the areas where the law does not permit the construction of any quarry per the maps attached to the 2002 decree.

The second step is to initiate accountability action against former minister Nohad Machnouk, who rendered the rights of the public treasury and the entire environment fair game, though the identity of the beneficiaries of this corruption is open to question. Is it only the companies that abused nature? Did he or any of the previous ministers benefit? Did he act at his own behest or in collusion with other political forces? All these questions can only be answered in the context of a serious prosecution. Note that the investigation into this case could lead to the institution the procedures stipulated in the Unjust Enrichment Law against this minister or others.

The third, no less important step is to prosecute the companies that desecrated the environment and people’s lives without authorization, pursuant not only to the regular rules of accountability but also to the “polluter pays” principle. In this regard, inspiration may be drawn from the prosecutions occurring against the companies polluting the basins of the Litani River before the judges of Zahlé. These prosecutions pave the way for more action in self-defense and in defense of society.

 

This article is an edited translation from Arabic.

 

Keywords: Lebanon, Environmental Rights, Quarries, National Council for Quarries and Crushers, Koura, Raya El Hassan, Nohad Machnouk

 

[1] At a later date, the Minister of Environment issued a stoppage of all quarries only to grant a three-months administrative extension on 21 March 2019 that allowed them to resume operations.