Environmental emergency in Lebanon after trash heaps caved in

The municipality of Sidon, Lebanon, has announced a state of environmental emergency after a storm that battered the Lebanese coast caused a landslide at a huge seaside garbage dump and sent more than 150 tonnes of waste into the sea.

Authorities say they are taking all possible measures to reduce the pollution of the Mediterranean Sea. Marine life experts, however, say frequent garbage influx into the sea has already polluted the entire Lebanese coast, causing fish to leave the sea near Lebanon's coast and migrate to cleaner places. This is the third time that the dump collapsed in about three months. Earlier, such incidents of garbage cave-ins from Sidon dump have led to garbage floating down to Syria and Greece.