Bourj Hammoud and Jdaideh Sanitary Landfills

The closure of the Naameh landfill in 2015 triggered an acute waste crisis across Beirut and Mount Lebanon. The Bourj Hammoud and Jdaideh landfills, built on reclaimed marine areas on Beirut's northern coast, were developed to receive that waste in the short to medium term behind engineered marine protection while a longer-term national solution was found.

Libanconsult delivered a sequence of mandates for the Council for Development and Reconstruction: the EIA, detailed design and tender documents (2016-2017), the Environmental Management Plan (2018) and the ESIA for capacity-increase alternatives, addressing at each stage the operational, visual and odour impacts on surrounding communities and marine users.

Scope covered treatment and removal of the Bourj Hammoud old dump, marine protection breakwaters, backfilling of reclaimed marine areas for landfills of 126,400 m2 and 122,700 m2, leachate treatment, landfill gas collection and flaring, odour management, physical scale modelling to verify breakwater stability and overtopping, and layout of public areas allocated for municipal use. The later ESIA evaluated a complementary intercalary extension with breakwater and reclamation works and modifications to the Dora port inlet.

The two landfills carried Lebanon's principal coastal disposal load through the waste crisis, behind scale-modelled marine protection and with each capacity increase assessed on the record.