The statutory regulation of storage, handling and disposal of hazardous materials is related to occupational hazards and not really part of environmental law. Most important statutes deal with handling of hazardous wastes, disposal and remediation. When some materials turn hazardous due to prevailing conditions owing to extended time of storage in an unregulated situation and in an unsafe place and finally reacts with the atmospheric elements to turn into unstable and dangerous compounds can become ticking bombs and result in an environmental crisis causing severe pollution of air, water and soil.
The Beirut blast is clearly an environmental and ecological crisis that can affect the air quality, soil and water resources in and around the city. It is not clear if it will cause any disruption of air quality within the region. The incident has exposed to the world the total ignorance, neglect and criminal negligence of the Lebanese government in handling hazardous materials. Ammonium Nitrate has many uses including the making of explosives. The port authorities have clearly ignored several warnings and neglected the storage of a reactive and flammable compound by leaving it unregulated for several years without putting in place requisite safety standards despite its proximity to general population. It simply calls for strict liability on the part of the Government without none else to take the blame. In the case of Lebanon, the storage of such volatile materials and exposing them to atmospheric elements for more than six years and thus endangering the lives of those living within the vicinity places the liability directly on the port authorities. Citizens have a right to sue the government and claim compensation for the damage incurred by them as several citizens were left homeless. But, does the government have the wherewithal to compensate its citizens either monetarily or otherwise? It seems it is helpless as one follows the various news articles published on the internet and watching the recent interview of Minister of Economy and Trade Mr. Raoul Nehme by BBC’s Stephen Sackur. It is more than evident that only there is no one in the government willing to take responsibility for the act of criminal negligence committed against its people of with every one of the Ministers passing the buck and claiming international monetary aid without accountability. Given the state of economy in the country with poverty levels rising, and failure of the government to provide basic amenities including electricity and drinking water to its citizens, Lebanon can very well be declared a fragile and failed state calling for intervention by the international community to save the nation from complete breakdown. A fragile and failed state threatens public health care infrastructure, thus risking global healthcare systems considering the COVID -19 pandemic. It further destabilizes regional security and requires humanitarian intervention by the UN and international community.
In this light, I wish to state here that the paper in this post was written by me in the year 2012 and published it while I was spending some time in the US. I just noticed that this paper was hacked to pieces and I had to edit the same for the purpose of this post. The print out that I normally store seems to have vanished and therefore, I do not have an earlier copy to compare and edit. In the event of any factual errors in the paper, it may have been due to my oversight in reviewing. I have not really updated the paper with any recent information. The content of the paper reflects my thinking on the subject that prevailed at that point in time. I am posting it here with the hope that there may be readers who think on the same lines as I do for the benefit of the helpless citizens of Lebanon and similar nations facing serious environmental crisis. The international community needs to come together to set an example of how international monetary aid can demand absolute accountability and transparency from governments or nations receiving such aid and assistance.
Working Paper on 'Making the United Nations work for Global Commons': Amending the UN Charter
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