A German company has finished treating dangerous chemicals in the port of Beirut

Yesterday, the German embassy in Beirut announced the end of the process of processing 52 containers containing highly dangerous chemicals that have been present in the port of Beirut for more than a decade, to be shipped to Germany.
The German Ambassador to Lebanon, Andreas Kindle, said on his Twitter account that the first part of the mission had been “completed” after “the company (Combi Lift) handled the 52 containers in which very dangerous substances accumulated during decades and posed a threat to people. ” in Beirut, “stating that” it is now ready to be shipped to Germany. “
Last November, Lebanon signed a contract with the German company “Compi Lift” worth $ 3.6 million for the disposal of “dangerous flammable materials” after it was discovered that they were stored in the port of Beirut, which it witnessed an explosion six months ago, killing more than 200 people and injuring more than 6,500 and severely damaging Lebanon’s main port and several Beirut neighborhoods.
The containers had been under the supervision of the General Directorate of Customs since 2009, which had the responsibility of disposing. Its existence emerged almost a month after the August 4 explosion, which caused the storage of large quantities of ammonium nitrate without safeguards.
A report prepared by the Directorate-General for Public Safety, as reported by the French Press Agency, based on a summary that was reviewed by the office of Acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab in November, that the containers “contain dangerous acidic substances that are flammable and They react quickly over time. “
The chairman of the board of directors, the director general of the port, speaking on behalf of al-Qaisi, told the agency at the time: “If the materials distributed in the heart of the port caught fire, Beirut would be destroyed.”
The agencies concerned, whether military or the port administration, do not have the capacity to destroy materials that require specialized knowledge and technologies that are not available locally. The contract between Lebanon and the German company provides for the reloading of hazardous materials in new special containers that withstand high temperatures and transport them out of Lebanon. The value of the contract is $ 3.6 million, of which the port administration will pay two million, while the company assumes $ 1.6 million, according to the offices of Diab and Al-Qaisi.