‘Zina’ causes storm over condition of Jbeil harbor
The Daily Star/Jan. 07, 2015
BEIRUT: A heavy storm sweeping through the country this week sparked controversy Wednesday over the condition of Jbeil’s historic harbor, as the mayor decried its deteriorating state and the Culture Ministry insisted that there is no threat to the port. In a statement Wednesday, the Department of Antiquities at the Culture Ministry said that it had dispatched a team of engineers and archeologists to inspect the harbor, one day after Mayor Ziad Hawat sounded alarms over its poor state. The statement said the storm had not inflicted any damage on the port, assuring that the historic harbor of Byblos was not threatened with collapse.
When contacted by The Daily Star, Hawat disputed the Culture Ministry’s claim, saying that there are “direct and indirect damages inflicted on the harbor.”Hawat noted that the storm did not inflict any “grave destruction” but signaled to damage to some restaurants near the post as well as the fishermen’s docks. “I am not a technician but it doesn’t take more than looking at the condition of the port to know that it needs renovation,” he said. As for the threat to the harbor, the mayor said that a ministerial statement claiming the absence of any real threat to the port wouldn’t suffice. In that regard, Hawat urged the ministry to publish an official report that is signed by both the culture minister and the director general of the Antiquities Department, confirming that the harbor is not under threat of collapse.
“Maybe this time it’s not threatened but what about the next major storm?” he asked, expressing his belief that the harbor can’t withstand more drastic weather. Jbeil MP Simon Abi Ramia also claimed that the port was damaged after inspecting the city in the aftermath of the storm Wednesday. “The preservation of the archaeological harbor in Jbeil is a chronic demand, and now there is a need to double rehabilitation [efforts] because of the damage inflicted on it,” he said. On Tuesday, pictures circulated on social media showed the port completely overrun by high waves.
In response, Hawat warned that the town’s historic harbor was at risk. “We repeatedly appealed to the Directorate General of Antiquities to ask the Ministry of Public Works to kick off renovation works at the old port but to no avail,” he wrote on Twitter A snow storm sweeping the Levant region cut off roads across Lebanon Wednesday, including the international Beirut-Damascus highway, isolating large areas in the north and east of the country and leaving at least three people dead. Heavy rains are expected Wednesday night and temperatures will continue to drop as “Zina” intensifies. The storm is being brought over by a low-pressure weather system from the North Pole via Eastern Europe, according to Michel Frem, head of the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute.
