10 August 2010

SIDON: Recent restrictions on the activities of sand and stone quarries have raised hopes that the importing of sand from abroad might be an alternative that would put an end to the disastrous effects of quarries.

NADOS, a ship hoisting the Lebanese flag, has docked at Sidon’s port with 3,200 tons of sand onboard that could be used in construction.

The vessel departed from an Egyptian harbor.

Mohammad Bashasha, the owner of a freight forwarding agency in Sidon, told The Daily Star Monday that he imported sand between 1994 and  2004, when he stopped due to the huge losses he sustained.

“Today, in 2010, I resumed importing sand from Egypt and we started to unload the cargo and transfer the charges to our clients immediately,” noted Bashasha, attributing the quick sale of the cargo to the remarkable increase in demand.

The high demand is resulting from a real-estate boom Lebanon is currently witnessing.

“This has encouraged me to bring more sand,” he added, noting that he ordered a quantity of sand equal to the load of seven ships and that another vessel would arrive in Lebanon within 24 hours.

The importer said that the price of a ton of sand ranged between $18 and $24 and that it was exempt from custom fees.

“But we pay the Value Added Tax [VAT] along with the port’s fees,” said Bashasha.

Bashasha said the quality of the sand imported from Egypt, and whether it was in line with the safety standards of construction in Lebanon was determined by special laboratories run by the government and the customs authority.

He said most of the sand was imported from the Egyptian cities of Dumyat and Arish.

Activists have been raising concerns over the dire environmental consequences of the continuous operations of sand and stone quarries in Lebanon.

Previous suspensions have proved ineffective.

Mahmoud al-Ahmadieh, the head of Environment Without Borders, stressed that quarries in Lebanon should abide by laws. “We are not against sand or stone quarries, but Lebanon’s mountains, trees and valleys are the country’s petroleum, and those stone and sand quarries are not abiding by the laws,” he told The Daily Star.

Ahmadieh heads the environment committee in the Engineers Syndicate.

“I support every move that  benefits the environment in Lebanon,” he said.

Ahmadieh voiced his support for closing all quarries if their owners continued to “step on laws.”

“I prefer that sand be imported from outside,” he said.

Ahmadieh gave examples of quarries in France and the US that worked in line with laws, with the operation sites turned into parks, gardens and “civilized landmarks.”

The activist said that truck drivers who lost their jobs following the recent bans on quarries should be granted permission to work in the sea ports to which sand is being imported.

Copyright The Daily Star 2010.