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Dandash’s departure wrote in Al-Akhbar:
With the start of the olive and oil campaign for this year, there is no positive change in dealing with the annual catastrophe caused by the remains of the oil mill, or what is known as “Zebar”.
Legislation and advisory notes issued by the Ministry of the Environment since 2010 on the dire effects of randomly dumping olive press debris on the environment (the cost of environmental degradation resulting from the Lebanese olive oil industry in 2006 was estimated at $ 13.27 million). Olive presses in Marjayoun, Nabatiyeh, Hasbaya, Rashaya, Koura, Akkar and Abduh in the north are still removing zebar by dumping it into sewer networks or emptying loaded tanks on open ground and in rivers and valleys, causing a serious contamination of surface and groundwater, in addition to serious damage to soil and crops.
The National Authority of the Litani River has requested the Ministry of the Interior, since the beginning of this season, to instruct the municipalities and municipal unions located in the course of the Litani River to warn the owners of the presses not to dump the resulting cloudy water to the river streams, as this causes damage in the western regions of Bekaa and Marjayoun, and In particular, the contamination of the Ain al-Zarqa spring, which is a source of drinking water for various towns and cities.
The environmental conditions for investment licenses for olive presses specified by Resolution 1 of 101 of 2010 are limited to collecting zebar in unused tanks, disposing of it and reusing it in a healthy and safe way. This is an economic treatment, which raises the doubt that the Ministry of Environment and Industry does not control the environmental violations of these oil mills, especially since the price of a plate of olive oil doubled this year. The director general of the Agricultural Scientific Research Authority, Michel Afram, confirmed that there has been no change regarding the proper disposition of Al-Zebar, “for a simple reason, which is the absence of supervision, the lack of seriousness in the management of this vital file and the lack of legal action against any of the offenders. The law exists, but it has no effect, and the pressers still dump the zebar as agreed, and some of them dump it into the sewer networks, leading to the disruption of the sewage treatment plants because they cannot refine the zebar, given its overload of chemicals and organic materials that need special treatment.
According to the list of the Ministry of Industry available until the beginning of 2019, there are only 63 authorized presses out of 500 in Lebanon, concentrated in the north, west of Bekaa, south, Nabatiyeh and Mount Lebanon. The head of the Residential Environmental Protection Department of the Ministry of the Environment, Olfat Hamdan, confirmed that most of these plants do not have an environmental commitment. The two techniques of the traditional era and the triple ejection era are adopted, “and these two technologies produce large amounts of liquid waste (zebar), while the number of presses adopting the ecological double ejection technique that produces less fish zebra does not exceed the number of fingers on one hand “.
The olive press produces solid waste resulting from the pressing of olive paste (peat), which is usually compressed and used in heating as an alternative to firewood that does not pollute the environment. As for the zebar, which is a liquid residue from the age of olive seeds, it contains dangerous organic, nitrogenous and alcoholic materials. According to Hamdan, the random discharge of zebar causes negative effects in the environment, due to its highly acidic content and rich in organic matter, among which polycyclic phenols stand out. This leads to contamination of soil and surface waters, “and small amounts of zebar are sufficient to contaminate drinking water sources if they leak into groundwater.” The problem is exacerbated when “chlorine” is used to disinfect water, since the interaction of “chlorine” with phenol leads to the formation of “chlorophenol”, which represents a greater danger to human health. Zebra fats also form a layer on the surface of the water that prevents the water from becoming saturated with oxygen and prevents the passage of sunlight, thus preventing the growth of plant and animal organisms.
Hamdan attributes the lack of implementation of the terms of the environmental commitment to the fact that the olive press is a seasonal industry, and the contemporary one is mainly family-owned, limiting the provision of environmental conditions that necessitate unavailable space. Furthermore, the treatment techniques are expensive and a single mill is not capable of performing them alone. He pointed out that many solutions have been adopted abroad, such as Spain and Syria, to use zebar in the irrigation of crops, but within strict guidelines, specific amounts and with many analyzes to ensure that soil, crops and surface waters do not become contaminated.
The Ministry of the Environment issued a resolution (No. 102/1) specifying the guidelines for the use of zebar for irrigation, regarding the excluded lands and the times in which irrigation with zebar is prohibited and the amounts allowed … and because this, according to Hamdan, is “accurate and expensive, it has not been officially approved.” As for the solution, it is “to establish central presses at the municipal or district level and establish cooperative societies that can bring modern equipment that can bear its cost and the cost of processing.” However, this solution “is difficult at the moment because this industry is still familiar and people often choose certain presses to feel comfortable with production.”
That is why the Ministry of the Environment implemented what it called the model project in one of the Al Koura presses, where an artificial waterproof well was created in which the zebar was collected, subjecting it to natural evaporation by the action of the sunlight, and the remainder of the sludge can be disposed of as an additive in animal feed or as solid household waste. This technique, Hamdan notes, “has proven its effectiveness and is the easiest to achieve sometimes acceptable standards, since other treatment techniques are very expensive. But as long as the fumigation pit is far from the houses to avoid odors. Meanwhile, the role of the Ministry of the Environment is currently limited to following up on complaints filed against the press and granting licenses to presses that comply with environmental conditions.
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