European and North African countries face a Mediterranean plastic pollution disaster

Tourist-sensitive countries, including France, Italy, Greece and Cyprus, are making efforts to combat the problem. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 22 November 2021
Follow

European and North African countries face a Mediterranean plastic pollution disaster

  • Plastic waste is a growing problem for the 21 countries that share the 28,000 km Mediterranean coastline
  • Tourist-sensitive countries, including France, Italy, Greece and Cyprus, are making efforts to combat the problem

LONDON: For millions of people around the world, the Mediterranean conjures images of the perfect holiday destination — pretty waterfront villages, great food, beautiful beaches and, above all, clear blue waters. Beneath this picture-postcard surface, however, the Mediterranean Sea is in the throes of a man-made environmental crisis.

At the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France, in September, the Mediterranean plastic crisis was firmly on the agenda. Representatives from tourist-sensitive countries, including France, Italy, Greece and Cyprus, lined up to bemoan the level of plastic pollution and to highlight their own efforts to combat the problem.

According to a report last year by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the total volume of plastic waste in the Mediterranean, found mostly beneath the waves, could be as much as 3.5 million tons, with anything between 150,000 and 610,000 additional tons finding its way into the sea every year.

For the 21 countries that share the 28,000 km Mediterranean coastline, the half a billion people who live on the sea or along the 1,693 watersheds that feed it, and the 340 million tourists who typically visit in a normal year, this is a growing problem.




The Mediterranean Sea is in the throes of a man-made environmental crisis. (AFP)

But of all those countries, just one has been singled out as the biggest single source of the problem. The finger of blame is pointing squarely at Egypt, which the IUCN says is responsible for releasing more plastic into the sea than any other nation, and twice as much as the second-worst offender.

According to the IUCN report “The Mediterranean: Mare Plasticum” — Latin for “the plastic sea” — is “widely regarded as one of the most threatened environments in the world” and “is subject to a now ubiquitous, man-made disaster: Plastic pollution.”

The worst offender, says the IUCN, is Egypt, responsible each year for the “leakage” of over 74,000 tons of macroplastics — pieces with a diameter greater than 5 mm — followed by Italy (34,000 tons) and Turkey (24,000 tons).

Together, these three “hotspot” countries contribute more than 50 percent of the 216,269 tons of macroplastics that end up in the Mediterranean Sea each year, overwhelmingly as a result of “mismanaged waste.”

When it comes to microplastics — over 13,000 tons of which finds its way into the sea — Egypt fares little better, ranking second only to Italy (3,000 tons a year), with 1,200 tons. Tyre dust accounts for more than half of the total of microplastics, followed by textiles (33 percent) and the plastic microbeads used in cosmetics (12 percent).

Although bottles and other plastic waste is omnipresent on Mediterranean beaches, most of the polluting plastic is beneath the surface, fouling sediment and disrupting the life cycles of multiple species of fish and aquatic plants.

Perhaps the most shocking statistic is that of the top 100 locations in the Mediterranean basin contributing to the annual leakage of macroplastics, no fewer than 75 are in Egypt, but what is not clear is exactly how much Egypt is actually to blame for the statistics laid at its door.

After all, the Nile watershed, which alone contributes an astonishing 25 percent of the total leakage of plastics into the Mediterranean, is shared by Egypt with 10 other upstream countries, all doing their bit to pollute the mighty river system on its way to the sea.

Marine Moulin, a spokesperson for the Union for the Mediterranean — of which Egypt is a member and whose secretary-general, Nasser Kamel, is a former Egyptian diplomat — said: “Many coastlines have been identified as places in the Mediterranean most polluted with plastic, but as we know the plastic, once in the sea, doesn’t know any borders.”

A spokesperson for the ecological action charity WWF added that “as the Mediterranean is a semi-closed basin, it’s crucial that all countries put in place strong policies to reduce plastic consumption, ensure 100 percent collection of waste and increase recycling and reuse systems.”

Furthermore, “EU countries should support southern Mediterranean countries to increase investments aimed at increasing collection and recycling facilities. At the same time, EU countries should ensure that the countries importing their waste have enough facilities to effectively manage all their waste, internal as well as imported.”




Greenish has organized a number of beach cleanups targeting plastic waste. (Supplied)

It was hardly realistic, added the Union for the Mediterranean, to expect Egypt to deal with the problem singlehandedly, and there is a strong case for wealthier European Mediterranean states, with so much to lose in terms of tourism, to help out their poorer southern neighbors.

“Governments, the private sector, research and financial institutions all need to work collaboratively to redesign processes and supply chains, invest in innovation and adopt sustainable consumption patterns and improved waste management practices to close the plastic tap.”

Egypt is keenly aware of the plastic-pollution problem. Last year, the country’s environment agency said that Egyptians use about 12 billion plastic bags a year, causing “severe problems” in the Nile, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

Greenish, a social enterprise running educational activities aimed at achieving sustainable development, has organized a number of beach cleanups targeting plastic waste. Co-founder Shady Khalil said that “Egyptians are becoming more aware of the plastic that we use, and also the littering on the beaches and in the resorts around Egypt.”

Nevertheless, he said, “waste management in Egypt is a work in progress.” He, too, believes northern Mediterranean countries should help Egypt with funding and, equally importantly, should be putting pressure on European companies, such as Nestle and L’Oreal, to reduce the use of plastics in their products.

“During our cleanups we find a lot of these companies’ products, in the Nile and also on the Mediterranean,” Khalil said. “Much of the plastic waste in Egypt belongs to companies from a northern country.”




Mediterranean  is “widely regarded as one of the most threatened environments in the world.” (AFP)

In April 2019, Egypt’s Red Sea province, home to some of the country’s most popular tourist destinations, such as the popular diving center Hurghada, announced it was imposing a ban on the use of disposable plastic items, such as straws, plastic bags and cutlery.

And, in a little-publicized side event at last month’s World Conservation Congress, Egypt was one of seven nations (along with France, Greece, Algeria, Morocco, Italy and Monaco) behind a new initiative, “The Mediterranean: A model sea by 2030,” which aims to “end overfishing, limit plastic pollution and develop sustainable maritime transport by 2030.”

But the crisis in plastics is not Egypt’s only environmental problem, and far from its most pressing. The environmental challenges facing the country are legion, with many demanding urgent action and at least one posing an existential threat.




Plastic waste is a growing problem for the 21 countries that share the 28,000 km Mediterranean coastline. (AFP)

Top of the crisis list is Egypt’s chronic water shortage, a worsening problem as populations in the 10 rapidly developing upstream nations along the Nile multiply, placing increasing demands on the finite flow of the river.

Egypt is rapidly heading toward what the UN defines as “absolute water scarcity,” the point at which the annual water supply for each person drops below 500 cubic meters. With only 20 cubic meters of water available from internal resources, Egypt’s population and all-important agricultural industry is utterly dependent on the Nile for its freshwater and, says the UN, the country is on course to hit absolute water scarcity by 2024.

Coastal erosion and the gradual sinking of the Nile delta is another problem, closely related to the increasingly impossible demands being placed on the river.

Part of the problem is the rising level of the Mediterranean, predicted to only accelerate as a consequence of climate change. But scientists have also found that the Nile delta, which on average is only one meter above sea level, is slowly sinking, thanks in large part to the reduction in the amount of sediment deposited in the delta as a consequence of the reduced flow of Nile water.

Other environmental problems are clamoring for the government’s attention. In August, the country was hit by an unusually fierce heatwave, which the Egyptian Meteorological Authority attributed to climate change, and the country continues to struggle with the seasonal curse of the “Black Clouds,” the recurring annual smog that gathers over its cities between September and November.




Most of the polluting plastic is beneath the surface, fouling sediment and disrupting the life cycles of multiple species of fish and aquatic plants. (AFP)

A breakdown by the Environment Ministry of the causes of the phenomenon gives an idea of the multiple issues the government must tackle if it is to make progress toward its climate goals. The burning of farming waste accounts for 42 percent of the problem, factory emissions 23 percent, vehicle exhaust fumes 23 percent and the municipal burning of waste 12 percent.

Climate change is, of course, at the top of everyone’s agenda, but even for this there is only so much money to go round.

When the 42 member countries of the Union for the Mediterranean met to discuss environmental issues and climate action in Cairo on Oct. 5, the main focus was on the failure of developed nations to make good on the pledge they made back in 2009 to allocate $100 billion a year, up to 2020, to help developing countries tackle the climate crisis.

Regardless, at that same meeting Egypt’s environment minister committed her government to “greening” half of its programs by 2024. This is an enormous task, given the current volume of Egypt’s CO2 emissions and general levels of pollution.

It was announced in October that Egypt wants to host next year’s COP27 session of the UN Climate Change Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh — great news for the hotels and restaurants of the Red Sea resort town, which were hard hit by the loss of tourism to the global pandemic.

But hosting the world’s leading climate-change event will cast a harsh light on the multiple environmental challenges facing Egypt. As Cairo intensifies its focus on these ahead of COP27, the hope is that the plastic-pollution crisis lurking beneath the surface of the Mediterranean will rise to the top of the government’s green agenda.

Twitter: @JonathanGornall


UN says 875 Palestinians have been killed near Gaza aid sites

Updated 11 min 59 sec ago
Follow

UN says 875 Palestinians have been killed near Gaza aid sites

  • The United Nations has called the GHF aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards

GENEVA: The UN rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and convoys run by other relief groups, including the United Nations.
The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.
The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.
The GHF, which began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May after Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade, previously told Reuters that such incidents have not occurred on its sites and accused the UN of misinformation, which it denies.
The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest UN figures.
“The data we have is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical human rights and humanitarian organizations,” Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.
The United Nations has called the GHF aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.
The GHF said on Tuesday it had delivered more than 75 million meals to Gaza Palestinians since the end of May, and that other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.
The Israeli army previously told Reuters in a statement that it was reviewing recent mass casualties and that it had sought to minimize friction between Palestinians and the Israel Defense Forces by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has previously cited instances of violent pillaging of aid, and the UN World Food Programme said last week that most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza had been intercepted by “hungry civilian communities.” 

 


Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 93 Palestinians, including several families, health officials say

Updated 7 sec ago
Follow

Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 93 Palestinians, including several families, health officials say

  • Strike in Gaza City’s Tel Al-Hawa district Monday evening kills 19 members of same family
  • Gaza’s Health Ministry says bodies of 93 people killed by Israeli strikes brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Malnutrition rates among children in the Gaza Strip have doubled since Israel sharply restricted the entry of food in March, the UN said Tuesday. New Israeli strikes killed more than 90 Palestinians, including dozens of women and children, according to health officials.
Hunger has been rising among Gaza’s more than 2 million Palestinians since Israel broke a ceasefire in March to resume the war and banned all food and other supplies from entering Gaza, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages. It slightly eased the blockade in late May, allowing in a trickle of aid.
UNRWA, the main UN agency caring for Palestinians in Gaza, said it had screened nearly 16,000 children under age 5 at its clinics in June and found 10.2 percent of them were acutely malnourished. By comparison, in March, 5.5 percent of the nearly 15,000 children it screened were malnourished.
New airstrikes kill several families
One strike in the northern Shati refugee camp killed a 68-year-old Hamas member of the Palestinian legislature, as well as a man and a woman and their six children who were sheltering in the same building, according to officials from the heavily damaged Shifa Hospital, where the casualties were taken.
One of the deadliest strikes hit a house in Gaza City’s Tel Al-Hawa district on Monday evening and killed 19 members of the family living inside, according to Shifa Hospital. The dead included eight women and six children. A strike on a tent housing displaced people in the same district killed a man and a woman and their two children.
The Israeli military did not comment on the strikes.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said in a daily report Tuesday afternoon that the bodies of 93 people killed by Israeli strikes had been brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, along with 278 wounded. It did not specify the total number of women and children among the dead.
The Hamas politician killed in a strike early Tuesday, Mohammed Faraj Al-Ghoul, was a member of the bloc of representatives from the group that won seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council in the last national elections, held in 2006.
The Israeli military says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in densely populated areas. But daily, it hits homes and shelters where people are living without warning or explanation of the target.
Malnutrition grows
UNICEF, which screens children separately from UNRWA, also reported a marked increase in malnutrition cases. It said this week its clinics had documented 5,870 cases of malnutrition among children in June, the fourth straight month of increases and more than double the around 2,000 cases it documented in February.
Experts have warned of famine since Israel tightened its lengthy blockade in March.
Israel has allowed an average of 69 trucks a day carrying supplies, including food, since it eased the blockade in May, according to the latest figures from COGAT, the Israeli military agency in charge of coordinating aid. That is far below the hundreds of trucks a day the UN says are needed to sustain Gaza’s population.
On Tuesday, COGAT blamed the UN for failing to distribute aid, saying in a post on X that thousands of pallets of supplies were inside Gaza waiting to be picked up by UN trucks. The UN says it has struggled to pick up and distribute aid because of Israeli military restrictions on its movements and the breakdown in law and order.
Israel has also let in food for distribution by an American contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. GHF says it has distributed food boxes with the equivalent of more than 70 million meals since late May at the four centers it runs in the Rafah area of southern Gaza and in central Gaza.
More than 840 Palestinians have been killed and more than 5,600 others wounded in shootings as they walk for hours trying to reach the GHF centers, according to the Health Ministry. Witnesses say Israeli forces open fire with barrages of live ammunition to control crowds on the roads to the GHF centers, which are located in military-controlled zones.
The military says it has fired warning shots at people it says have approached its forces in a suspicious manner. GHF says no shootings have taken place in or immediately around its distribution sites.
No breakthrough in ceasefire efforts
The latest attacks came after US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held two days of talks last week that ended with no breakthrough in negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release.
Israel has killed more than 58,400 Palestinians and wounded more than 139,000 others in its retaliation campaign since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Just over half the dead are women and children, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its tally.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after its attack 21 month ago, in which militants stormed into southern Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. They abducted 251 others, and the militants are still holding 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive.
US calls for probe into killing of Palestinian-American
In a separate development, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee called on Israel to investigate the killing of a 20-year-old Palestinian-American whose family said was beaten to death by Jewish settlers over the weekend in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act,” Huckabee wrote on X.
Seifeddin Musalat, born in Florida, and a local friend were killed Friday. Musalat was beaten to death by Israeli settlers on his family’s land, his cousin Diana Halum told reporters. The family had called on the US State Department to investigate his death and hold the settlers accountable.
The Israeli military said a confrontation erupted after Palestinians hurled stones at Israelis in the area earlier in the day, lightly wounding two people.
Huckabee, like many in the Trump administration, is a strong supporter of Israeli settlements, which are considered illegal by most of the international community and seen by the Palestinians as a major obstacle to peace.
Israel strikes Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley
Also on Tuesday, Israel launched a series of strikes in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, targeting what the military said were compounds of the Hezbollah militant group.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that one of the strikes hit a Syrian refugee camp, killing seven Syrians. Altogether, the strikes killed 12 people and wounded eight, it said. Hezbollah said one of the strikes hit a rig used to drill water wells.
Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes in Lebanon since a US-brokered ceasefire agreement nominally brought an end to the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November. Some 4,000 people were killed in Lebanon during the war and more than 250 since the ceasefire.

 


UN-backed experts focusing on Palestinian rights quit

Updated 16 July 2025
Follow

UN-backed experts focusing on Palestinian rights quit

  • Council spokesman Pascal Sim said the move marked the first joint resignations of Commission of Inquiry members since the council was founded in 2006

GENEVA: A team of three independent experts working for the UN’s top human rights body with a focus on Israel and Palestinian areas say they are resigning, citing personal reasons and a need for change, in the panel’s first such group resignation.
The resignations, announced Monday by the UN-backed Human Rights Council that set up the team, come as violence continues in Palestinian areas with few signs of letup in the Israeli military campaign against Hamas and other militants behind the Oct. 7 attacks.
The Israeli government has repeatedly criticized the panel of experts, known as the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, and denied their repeated requests to travel to the region or otherwise cooperate with the team.
Council spokesman Pascal Sim said the move marked the first joint resignations of Commission of Inquiry members since the council was founded in 2006. 
The team said in a statement that the resignations had “absolutely nothing to do with any external event or pressure.”
Navi Pillay, 83, a former UN human rights chief who has led the commission for the last four years, said in a letter to the council president that she was resigning effective Nov. 3 because of “age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments.”    

 


Survivors bury dead after RSF attack devastates Sudan village

Updated 15 July 2025
Follow

Survivors bury dead after RSF attack devastates Sudan village

  • The Emergency Lawyers reported on Monday that nearly 300 people were killed in North Kordofan villages
  • The area is home to several armed tribes that have refused to pledge allegiance to the RSF

PORT SUDAN: It took a full day for the villagers of Shaq Al-Nom, in Sudan’s North Kordofan state, to bury their dead after an attack by paramilitary fighters that left the village in ruins, a survivor told AFP on Tuesday.

The Saturday attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — the paramilitary force at war with the regular army since April 2023 — was part of a series of raids in recent days on villages in North Kordofan, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of the capital Khartoum.

“On Sunday, we collected the bodies from the village streets and inside the houses, and we buried 200 bodies,” Saleh Abdel Rahim, 34, told AFP.

The Emergency Lawyers, a group that documents atrocities by both sides in the war, reported on Monday that nearly 300 people were killed in North Kordofan villages between Saturday and Sunday.

Tolls are nearly impossible to independently verify in Sudan, with many medical facilities forced out of service and limited media access.

“It was indescribable,” Abdel Rahim said, using a pseudonym for fear of retaliation because he had fled to an area close to RSF positions.

“Under artillery shelling, houses burned with their families inside,” he told AFP via satellite Internet connection to circumvent a communications blackout.

Since it began, the war has killed tens of thousands and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises, with 14 million Sudanese currently displaced inside the country and across borders.

The Emergency Lawyers reported on Monday that paramilitaries had killed women and children, abducted civilians and looted livestock in the villages surrounding the RSF-controlled city of Bara.

In Shaq Al-Nom, “RSF vehicles arrived in the village, in an attempt to storm it” on Saturday under a hail of machine gun fire and drone strikes, according to Abdel Rahim.

“We had no choice but to resist in defense,” he said, adding that “all of the villagers of the Bara countryside have fled.”

The area is home to several armed tribes that have refused to pledge allegiance to the RSF.

North Kordofan, key to the RSF’s fuel smuggling route via Libya, has been an important battleground between the army and the paramilitaries for months.

The RSF has tried to encircle the North Kordofan state capital of El-Obeid — the only road link between Khartoum and the vast western region of Darfur, which the RSF has all but conquered.

It has been unable, however, to seize the North Darfur state capital of El-Fasher despite an ongoing siege for more than a year.

Sudanese analyst Kholood Khair told AFP that “they want to consolidate that road that links El-Fasher to El-Obeid and other parts of Kordofan, so effectively they’re in a race against time to consolidate in the west before the rains come.”

Sudan’s rainy season, which peaks in August, renders much of the country’s roads inaccessible, making it impossible for either side to capture territory until the floods start clearing in September.


Can Beirut’s new bus network succeed where past reform efforts in Lebanon failed?

Updated 15 July 2025
Follow

Can Beirut’s new bus network succeed where past reform efforts in Lebanon failed?

  • Sleek new AC buses equipped with GPS and modern fare systems offer a welcome glimpse of efficiency
  • World Bank warns that dependence on private vehicles is unsustainable amid rising poverty and costs

LONDON: On Beirut’s congested roads, where traffic crawls and crumbling infrastructure testifies to decades of neglect, a new rhythm is quietly taking shape.

Sleek, navy-blue buses — equipped with GPS, air conditioning and modern fare systems — now trundle through the city’s chaos, offering a welcome glimpse of efficiency. Whether they can truly deliver long-term impact, however, remains uncertain.

Cars crowd a road during a traffic jam in Beirut on October 14, 2024. (AFP)

For decades, Lebanon’s public transportation system has been an informal patchwork dominated by private minibuses and shared taxis. Now, the government is attempting to reassert control through a partnership with a private company aimed at modernizing the daily commute.

The new fleet operates on 11 routes, primarily across Greater Beirut, but also extending to parts of northern, southern and eastern Lebanon. A private logistics firm, Ahdab Commuting and Trading Co., manages day-to-day operations under a public-private partnership model.

FASTFACTS

• France donated 50 of the buses currently in use across Greater Beirut and beyond.

• A network of private vans and minibuses run fixed routes without schedules or stops.

• The 2024 Israel-Hezbollah conflict damaged Lebanon’s transport infrastructure.

While the initiative shows promise, commuters are aware of its limitations.

“Overall, you’ll mostly notice the impact of public transit inside the major cities, but even there, the system still heavily relies on taxis,” Mohammed Ali Diab, a Beirut-based journalist, told Arab News.

Beirut’s new buses aim to ease pressure on a public transit system long dominated by private minibuses and shared taxis, left. (Supplied & AFP file)

“Most taxis operate on a shared-ride basis unless a passenger specifically requests a private ride.”

Passengers typically say “service” to request a shared taxi, paying a flat fare — usually around 200,000 Lebanese pounds, or $2 — while the driver continues picking up others along the same route.

Passengers sit in a public transportation bus in Beirut on May 28, 2025. (AFP)

“In Beirut, there are also vans, but their routes are limited and fixed,” Diab added. “They don’t operate citywide.”

These vans and buses, he noted, are primarily used by working-class commuters and students, largely due to their affordability.

We took a risk during a difficult time and invested in a project that’s close to our hearts … We’re hopeful it will succeed, says Aoni Ahdab, CEO, Ahdab Commuting and Trading Co.

Beyond Beirut, shared taxis and buses connect major cities such as Tripoli, Tyre and Sidon. But in rural and mountainous regions, Diab said, residents still depend on private cars.

That dependence is becoming increasingly unviable. The World Bank’s Beirut office recently warned that Lebanon’s “reliance on private vehicles is increasingly unsustainable,” particularly amid rising poverty rates and vehicle-operation costs.

A public bus awaits passengers at a bus stop in Beirut on May 28, 2025. (AFP)

Lebanon is reeling from one of the world’s worst economic crises since 1850, according to the World Bank. Since 2019, currency collapse and high inflation have wiped out savings, shrunk incomes and pushed millions of people into poverty.

A 2024 World Bank report revealed that poverty has more than tripled over the past decade, now affecting 44 percent of the population. A separate study by Walid Marrouch, an economics professor at the Lebanese American University, found that at least 60 percent of citizens live below the poverty line.

A picture taken from Dbayeh north of Beirut on June 7, 2019, shows the skyline of the Lebanese capital covered in smog at sunset. (AFP)

Against this economic backdrop, the government’s partnership with ACTC represents a promising policy shift.

In 2023, the company won a competitive bid launched by the Ministry of Public Works to operate the bus system under specific contractual conditions. As part of the deal, ACTC contributes 10 percent of its revenues to the ministry.

Passengers sit in a public transportation bus in Beirut on May 28, 2025. (AFP)

Despite the financial risks, ACTC leaders believe in the project’s potential. “We took a risk during a difficult time and invested in a project that’s close to our hearts — one we believe adds real value to the country,” Aoni Ahdab, the ACTC CEO, told Lebanese media. “We’re hopeful it will succeed.”

The service officially launched in July 2024, despite regional instability and periodic hostilities between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah that temporarily disrupted routes. Israel’s escalation of attacks from September through late November did not halt the project.

The driver helps a passenger to validate her ticket at a public transportation bus in Beirut on May 28, 2025. (AFP)

The 2024 conflict caused heavy damage to Lebanon’s transport infrastructure. The World Bank estimates $1 billion is needed for infrastructure sectors, including transport, within an $11 billion national recovery plan.

Much of the new fleet’s foundation was laid earlier. In 2022, France donated 50 buses to Lebanon, with more expected. Meanwhile, the Railway and Public Transport Authority refurbished 45 vehicles locally, raising the operational fleet to 95 — a modest but tangible effort to ease the transportation burden.

A public bus drives at a street in Beirut on May 28, 2025. (AFP)

Although the ACTC contract did not mandate fleet upgrades, the company voluntarily refurbished and standardized the buses, repainting them in navy blue for easy identification and installing safety and tracking technologies.

To test viability, a pilot phase launched in April. Buses operated from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily to assess travel times, stop durations and operational needs. The goal was to ensure departures every 25 minutes.

Passengers sit in a public transportation bus in Beirut on May 28, 2025. (AFP)

Pricing was designed to be accessible. Fares vary by distance: 70,000 Lebanese pounds within Beirut, 100,000 to Baabda, and 150,000 to Tripoli, according to local passengers.

Riders can purchase single-use tickets or opt for rechargeable cards. For now, those without cards can still pay drivers directly and receive a scannable paper ticket.

As Beirut confronts long-standing infrastructure challenges, this initiative is viewed as cautious progress. Yet its success will depend on earning public trust and expanding service sustainably.

Initial data is encouraging. Ziad Nasr, head of Lebanon’s public transport authority, told AFP last month that daily ridership has risen to around 4,500 passengers, up from just a few hundred at launch.

Authorities hope to expand service further, including routes to Beirut’s airport, but additional buses and international support will be needed.

However, the rollout has not been smooth. Resistance from private transport operators, who view the initiative as a threat to their livelihoods, has been fierce.

According to local media, several buses were vandalized and drivers, especially on the Adlieh–Hadath University Campus route, faced threats and harassment toward the end of 2024. The Ministry of Public Works and security forces intervened to keep services running.

These tensions are symptomatic of deeper, long-standing issues. Lebanon’s public transport sector has suffered for decades from weak oversight, overlapping private interests, chronic underfunding, and lack of strategic planning — all of which have repeatedly hindered reform efforts.

The roots of dysfunction stretch back to the civil war of 1975–1990, which devastated infrastructure and governance. In the years that followed, a car-dependent culture took hold. Even before the 2019 economic collapse, Lebanon was already struggling with failing power grids, unsafe roads and limited water access.

Beyond reducing congestion and improving mobility, public transportation could also play a key role in environmental reform — an often overlooked priority in Lebanon. A World Bank climate and development report noted that the transport sector is the country’s second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, second only to the energy sector.

Indeed, in cities like Beirut, poor air quality is a growing concern. Frequent traffic jams and widespread use of diesel-powered generators — especially during routine blackouts — have worsened pollution and related health risks.

On the upside, there are signs of innovation. In Zahle, east of Beirut, four hybrid buses are already operating, Nabil Mneimne of the UN Development Program told AFP in June.

More progress is expected this year. Lebanon’s first fully electric buses, powered by a solar charging system, are set to launch between Beirut and the northern city of Jbeil.

A longer-term roadmap for reform has also been laid out. A 2022 World Bank report on improving public transport in Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq outlined key recommendations. These included unifying bus operators, creating a fund to buy back public licenses, implementing intelligent transport systems, and developing a national road safety strategy.

The report also urged the government to adopt “quick-win” solutions to improve the user experience — such as reliable schedules, journey-planning apps, real-time tracking, and updated data to enable effective planning.

Together, these steps could help Lebanon transform its transportation landscape — if the political will and public support can be sustained.