BEIRUT: Beirut Governor Ziad Chebib said Tuesday he issued a decision to temporarily close down Beirut’s infamous slaughterhouse to carry our renovation and refurbishment works. Chebib said he had signed a decision to begin upgrading the slaughterhouse and equipping it so that it meets health and safety standards.
Activities inside the facility would be suspended as of Wednesday until the decision is fully implemented, Chebib added.
“The Engineering Department of the Beirut Municipality was tasked with immediately searching and proposing locations for constructing a modern slaughterhouse,” the governor added.
The condition of the slaughterhouse came into the limelight after a food scandal emerged last week, with Health Minister Wael Abu Faour announcing the names of restaurants across Lebanon selling contaminated meat.
Chebib had inspected the slaughterhouse Monday.
The Daily Star visited the facility the same day and noted that, indeed, basic health and sanitation standards were not being observed.
Chebib said he had signed another decision to force workers at the slaughterhouse to meet specific health requirements.
According to the decision, anyone working at the slaughterhouse, including butchers who routinely buy meat from there, must present a permit, which they can acquire after demonstrating they meet standards.
“[The butcher] should undergo specific tests and be examined by the Beirut Municipality’s physician, who can request any type of laboratory test,” Chebib said.
“Based on the results of these tests, he will be granted a health certificate that will allow him to get a permit to enter the slaughterhouse.”
Chebib explained that only workers inside the slaughterhouse and butchers willing to buy meat to sell would be allowed in.
“The slaughterhouse will no longer be a big butchery for all, which is what is happening now, where meat is being sold at retail,” Chebib said. “This is causing all this chaos.”
Chebib added that his decision stipulated what workers should wear and how they should wash their hands while at work.
The governor explained that the temporary suspension of the slaughterhouse’s activities would have only a minor effect on the supply of meat in the capital.
“Contrary to what people think, the slaughterhouse of Beirut meets between 6 percent and 8 percent of demand in Beirut,” Chebib said.
He noted that renovations would be complete within a few weeks.
Appointed by the government in May, Chebib has an ambitious program to improve the quality of life in Beirut.
Unlike all other governorates in Lebanon, Beirut’s governor heads the executive authority in Beirut’s municipality. For its part, the municipality wields decision-making powers.
This has negatively affected the municipality, with Beirut Mayor Bilal Hamad accusing the capital’s acting Governor Nassif Qaloush of disrupting the implementation of many projects.
“I found that the best way to put things on the right track and be productive is through teamwork,” Chebib said. “This means that decision-makers and the head of the executive authority must sit together at one table.”
Chebib added that he attended a meeting of Beirut’s municipal council last week.
“It was a very important experience that had a positive impact and was welcomed by Mayor Bilal Hamad and all other members of the council,” he said.
Chebib added that there was a study being conducted to establish a modern public transportation system in Beirut. “We will make the appropriate decisions. We might have small buses or even a subway system.”
The governor added that a project to rehabilitate and reopen Horsh Beirut, Beirut’s largest park, was being studied.
“We will also renovate present public gardens and establish new ones,” he said.
Chebib added that after opposing the idea in the past, the municipality of Burj Hammoud agreed a few months ago to establish a waste water treatment plant in the area.
The plant, along with another one in the Beirut southern suburb of Ghobeiry, would treat waste water coming from the capital and its suburbs. Currently, sewage water is directed toward the sea.
Ghobeiry’s plant has already been constructed, but the municipality refuses to pay for installing the sewage network.
Chebib said that a method to finance the construction of the plant would soon materialize.
The governor added that the waters off Beirut’s coast would be the “cleanest in Lebanon” once both plants start functioning.
Before assuming his post, 40-year-old Chebib, who hails from the Akkar village of Oweinat, worked as a judge at the State Shura Council.
He said that the two posts were not completely different.
“The judge at the Shura Council ... deals with decisions made by the public administration ... he monitors them,” he said. “The governor makes these decisions.”
Although it was evening when The Daily Star interviewed Chebib, he said he rarely counted working hours. “We are fully dedicated to work.”
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