Lebanon’s economy and electricity system are broken and much power is now generated locally, with devastating effects on air quality and health
Smog hangs over Beirut most days, a brownish cloud that darkens the city’s skyline of minarets and concrete towers. An estimated 8,000 diesel generators have been powering Lebanese cities since the nation’s economic collapse in 2019. The generators can be heard, smelled and seen on the streets, but their worst impact is on the air the city’s inhabitants are forced to breathe.
New research, to be published by scientists at American University of Beirut (AUB), has found that the Lebanese capital’s over-reliance on the diesel generators in the past five years has directly doubled the risk of developing cancer. Rates of positive diagnosis, oncologists say, are shooting up.
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New research, to be published by scientists at American University of Beirut (AUB), has found that the Lebanese capital’s over-reliance on the diesel generators in the past five years has directly doubled the risk of developing cancer.
Lebanon’s government, paralysed politically and failing to enact anti-corruption measures that could unlock a bailout deal from the International Monetary Fund, has frozen ministry budgets, affecting all areas of life.
The billions of dollars pumped into Lebanon by various international donors for infrastructure projects have not corrected the most basic issues, she says: “There is still no clean air, water or soil.
Julien Jreissati from Greenpeace Middle East and North Africa says an inoperative air pollution monitor network is consistent with other environmental projects.
A 2020 Greenpeace study estimated that 2,700 people died prematurely in Lebanon because of air pollution in 2018 – the highest rate per capita in the Middle East, joint with Egypt.
“The AUB did measurements and mathematic modelling and found that 40% of daily exposure by people in Lebanon to airborne carcinogens comes from one source: diesel generators,” Khuri says.
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