RESEARCH By Nikolett Puskas
Beirut, the ground beneath our feet
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A climate emergency initiative in Beirut offers important lessons for waste management and community organisation globally
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eirut triggers distinct thoughts in everybody. It is a truly vital city at its heart, thanks to its people, its fluidity and its many informal systems. The way in which the urban landscape evolved here is extremely rich and intricate, due especially to the impact of the Lebanese civil war and the many displaced people that the country is hosting. When I look at pictures of the old Beirut, I feel heartache for the tram that used to operate, for the old villas, the greenery, the seashore and for the time when there was a flourishing river. 18
Today’s landscape is intensely dense, full of high-rise buildings and in its most crowded area, Burj Hammoud (62,500 inhabitants/km2, more than three times the Beirut-average1 ) it can be difficult to see the sky, unless going up to a rooftop. There is an extreme duality here since the end of the civil war, one of decaying buildings and poverty, and the other of absolute luxury. Despite the two extremes, recent headlines and conversations with local people justify the conclusion that the ground beneath all our feet here is a ‘garbage mountain’. The waste crisis peaked in 2015 and has
not been properly addressed ever since. It is also a health crisis, not only is the soil and thus groundwater polluted, but it is hazardous to swim in the sea and because it is still common practise also to burn waste, the air is dangerously polluted. It is in this context that I am conducting fieldwork for my PhD at University College London’s (UCL) Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) and a member of the RELIEF Centre2 under Professor Henrietta Moore’s supervision, locally working with Professor Yaser Abunnasr at the American University of Beirut’s (AUB)
ediger, D. and H Lukic, A. (2009) The Armenian Quarters in Beirut, Bourj Hammoud and Karm El Zeitoun. ETH Studio Basel 2 The RELIEF Centre aims to speed up transitions to sustainable, prosperous societies in the context of mass displacement, to improve the quality of people’s lives. The RELIEF Centre brings Lebanese and UK institutions and expertise together to address this challenge using cutting-edge research and innovation. 1
