Industrial Wastewater Treatment in Lebanon: Limitations, Environmental Risks and Health Hazards

AKSOB 0903, Beirut Campus

The Department of Natural Sciences is organizing a seminar by Dr. Ramez Zayyat, assistant manager of the Environmental Engineering Research Center at the American University of Beirut, on Industrial Wastewater Treatment in Lebanon: Limitations, Environmental Risks and Health Hazards.

Abstract

Managing wastewater is one of the most challenging tasks in Lebanon, with most of it being haphazardly discharged into the Mediterranean. In the absence of nationwide studies, it was estimated that in 1998, 249 million cubic meters of wastewater, with a total BOD load of 99,960 tons is generated on an annual bases. Industries are responsible for the generation of 43 million cubic meters of waste with an estimated BOD load of about 5,000 tons per year. These numbers are expected to increase as the daily industrial wastewater discharge is expected to reach a staggering 192,000 cubic meters per day by 2020. As a result, industrial wastewater treatment is an issue that will remain in the forefront in the future. The Lebanese Ministry of Environment issued multiple regulations for industrial wastewater disposal, specifically targeting newly licensed industries with a grace period of 10 years for existing industries. A number of constraints hindering the application of such regulations include problems with infrastructures, lack of technical knowhow, lack of incentives, and absence of enforcement mechanisms.