Lebanon's coastline could take up to 10 years to recover from a massive oil spill, the nation's environment minister has said.

 

Yacoub Sarraf said it was impossible to tackle the problem while the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel continued. Marine experts have warned the spill could pose a cancer risk to people living in the affected areas.

 

The oil slick caused by Israeli bombing of a power station now covers 120km (75 miles) of the region's coasts. Mr Sarraf said the delay had already severely affected the Lebanese shores.

 

"The damage has been done. It goes without saying that the whole fishing community will be hit for at least two or three years before the ecosystem re-establishes itself," he told BBC News. "The tourism sector has also been hit for one or two seasons, and I am being very optimistic. But worse, if we do not intervene as soon as possible, the spill that is still floating off the coast of Lebanon could return and hit the shores again."

 

Mr Sarraf added that until there was a ceasefire, it would be impossible to begin any clean-up operation. "We cannot get equipment, companies, labour or know-how to handle the problem," he said. "If you compare this to any spill in history, intervention can help within the first 48-72 hours of the spill; we are already 20 days too late."

 

'Cancer risk'

 

Marine experts from Inforac, an organisation with links to the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep), issued a warning on Tuesday that the raid on the Jiyyeh Power plant in mid-July could pose a cancer risk to people living in the area. Spokeswoman Simonetta Lombardo said the spill of fuel oil was a "high-risk toxic cocktail made up of substances which cause cancer and damage to the endocrine system".

 

The experts warned that the first people at risk from the "toxic spray" were the two million inhabitants of Beirut. They also said that large quantities of dead fish along Lebanon's shores had been killed by the oil pollution.

 

A spokeswoman for Unep's Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) said it was too early to judge the impact of the pollution on the area's environment. "It is premature to derive any conclusion on the type of oil and the potential health impacts before having conducted a sample analysis of the spill," said Luisa Colasimone. "No conclusion can be done at this stage before we have people on the ground".

 

She added that a team of UN experts had arrived in Syria on Tuesday and one of their tasks would be to take samples of the oil spill. Basma Badran, a Beirut-based spokeswoman for Greenpeace, said no clean-up operation would get under way until workers' safety could be guaranteed.

 

"It is an extremely risky task to make the proper assessment while under fire," she told BBC News.

 

"Several countries are on stand-by to send technical and expert assistance if the safety of their supplies and teams can be guaranteed."

 

Ms Badran added that international help was essential because the Lebanese authorities lacked any capacity to deal with such a large spill. The Lebanese environment minister said the latest satellite images showed the oil slick was continuing to spread across the eastern Mediterranean Sea, threatening the coastlines of Turkey and possibly Cyprus.

 

However, a spokesman for Turkey's prime minister said the risk to the country's shores was "fairly limited", but aircraft were carrying out regular monitoring flights and that naval vessels were ready to deploy floating barriers if needed.

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5255966.stm

awful thing

:o crikey! Thats one massive oil spill....

Damn it, you always have a choice.

 

To bomb or not to bomb. And this is one of the many things that happens if you pick wrong.

 

I was about to rant about how I hope Israel are going to pay to clean up the mess. but then I realised, or I suddently lost the will. This is how humanity is going to die. Choking to death and blaming someone else.

 

The people who ceasefire first and start clearing it up are the one's who win.

Damn it, you always have a choice.

 

To bomb or not to bomb. And this is one of the many things that happens if you pick wrong.

 

I was about to rant about how I hope Israel are going to pay to clean up the mess. but then I realised, or I suddently lost the will. This is how humanity is going to die. Choking to death and blaming someone else.

 

The people who ceasefire first and start clearing it up are the one's who win.

 

and you have a choice to be defeated or not defeat. no nation in their mind would just sit by and be attacked and chose not to.

I was about to rant about how I hope Israel are going to pay to clean up the mess.

 

Yes, that's a good point.

Hard working Americans paid to give Isreal the means to carry out such a war. Now they surely will end up paying to clean up the mess those weapons created as well.

damn taxes...

:(

Yes, that's a good point.

Hard working Americans paid to give Isreal the means to carry out such a war. Now they surely will end up paying to clean up the mess those weapons created as well.

 

 

no, we gave them a way to defend themselves....remember THEY were attacked.....

 

you people act like its a crime to defend yourself.....

didn't this second conflict get triggered off because of the kidnappings?? Then where's the defense come in?

Yes, that's a good point.

Hard working Americans paid to give Isreal the means to carry out such a war. Now they surely will end up paying to clean up the mess those weapons created as well.

Not strictly true, payments from America account for about 3.4% of Israeli GDP, they're quite a successful nation without America's help

and you have a choice to be defeated or not defeat. no nation in their mind would just sit by and be attacked and chose not to.

The Hezbollah rocket attacks were a mere buzz of a threat compared to the number of lives lost by car accidents. They weren't a credible threat to Israelis.

Can you find some credible statics for how many Israeli's have been killed by Hezbollah rocket attacks in the past five years?

 

And then compare that to the economic effects of every single fisherman in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Cyrus being out of a job for the next two to three years. Not to mention the deaths and cost of healthcare to everyone who gets sicks from the pollution.

manc, thats exactly what i have been saying....todays headlines

 

3 PEOPLE WOUNDED IN A HEZBOLLAH ROCKET ATTACK IN NORTHERN ISRAEL, 4 ROCKETS FIRED FROM A STRONGHOLD IN BERUIT.

 

BLAH

 

BLAH

 

BLAH

 

30 people died in bombings on a town in western Lebanon, most of the casualties were children.

 

 

 

It seems as tho, the only important casualties are the ones israel suffers

It seems as tho' date=' the only important casualties are the ones israel suffers[/quote']

Its kind of true though, if you go by GDP per capita, how much each member of population is worth in financial terms, from the wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita

 

Israel = $23,400

Lebanon = $6,520

 

So one Israeli is worth four Lebanese

 

check this out though for Palestinians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_economy#Statistics_.28West_Bank_.26_Gaza_strip.29

 

West Bank = $800

Gaza Strip = $600

 

This is tragic