BEIRUT: Kuwait will rebuild the wheat silos that were destroyed during the Aug. 4 port explosion, Kuwaiti Ambassador to Lebanon Abdel-Aal al-Qenaei said Saturday.
"We decided that the best and most appropriate way to start with the material aid is to rebuild the silos that provide the strategic reserve of wheat for brotherly Lebanon," Qenaei said in an interview with Radio Lebanon.
Around 85 percent of Lebanons wheat supply transited through the wheat silos at Beirut port before the blast, which killed at least 181 people and injured 7000 more.
These silos were originally built in the year 1969 with a loan from the Kuwait Fund for Development, and that is why we decided to announce their rebuilding, Qenaei added.
The silos, now an icon of the political elites criminal negligence in storing 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate unsafely for years, were originally conceived by Palestinian banker Yousef Beidas.
The World Food Program said following the blast that it would deliver 17,500 tons of wheat flour and a three month supply of wheat into Lebanon to help replenish the countrys food reserves following the blast. It also said that it would provide logistical support including setting up warehouse and mobile grain storage units.
Qenaei said that the silo rebuilding was part of broader Kuwaiti assistance to Lebanon in the aftermath of the explosion, including committing $41 million at the French-organized donor conference held on Aug. 9.
So far, 18 Kuwait planes have transported approximately 800 tons of aid, Qenaei said. The pain of Lebanon is the pain of every Kuwaiti.
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