The Municipal Council of the city of Sidon held a meeting on the afternoon of Friday, 18 September 2026 — considered the first since its election — to discuss the crisis of the city’s waste-treatment plant.
According to sources close to the Municipal Council, the members were in the position of demanding that the necessary legal decisions be taken to bring the plant’s situation under control, and of examining the possibility of operating it regularly through compliance with the terms of the contract concluded between the Municipality of Sidon and the company (IBC) that operates the plant.
Despite the divergence of viewpoints between the mayor, Mustafa Hijazi, and the majority of the members, the discussion addressed the various aspects related to the mechanism of the company’s management, the extent of its compliance with the signed contract, and its reneging on the promises made to the municipality. Nevertheless, the Municipal Council reached positions that may form a basis for exerting pressure in order to correct the plant’s situation — which calls for posing a pivotal question to the Council so that it acts accordingly:
The company's management collected from public funds, as payment for treating the free quantity, from late 2012 until the end of 2023, around 70 million US dollars without any right, as a result of unjustified concessions
Does the head of the Municipal Council, in his capacity as head of the Union of Sidon–Zahrani Municipalities, bear responsibility for approving the disbursement of waste-treatment-payment funds for a period of a year and a half that the company claims to have treated since the Council assumed its duties, in the absence of any oversight? Especially since the reports of the committee mandated by the Council highlighted the irregularity of the work during this period. And does the current Municipal Council accept bearing this responsibility, which entails a squandering of public funds as a result of the absence of the required oversight? These are questions that constitute an entry point to any real correction process.
Does the path of correction begin?
To begin with, it is necessary to affirm the need of the city of Sidon and its region for the treatment plant and for securing a sanitary landfill for the residuals, especially after it became clear that what the operating company proposed when the contract was signed in 2002 was a fanciful proposal that claimed there was no need for a landfill and that the work mechanism would not produce any residuals.
On the technical and engineering side, and if we need a plant that operates regularly, far from sterile controversy, we can rely on the technical report prepared by the expert Farouk al-Mu’arabi in late 2022; it is a detailed report that specifies the actual requirements for restoring the regularity of the work, and which the municipal councils have neglected to discuss ever since.
Legally, the contract concluded in 2002 represents a fundamental basis for adding the appropriate conditions for the continuation of the plant’s work in accordance with the agreement. However, it clearly appears that the two parties to the contract (the municipality and the company’s management) have not complied with its terms since the start of the work.
Since the plant was established, the municipality has not exercised its oversight and supervisory role to verify the company’s compliance; for example: a few months after operation began, the company’s director at the time, Nabil Zantout, traveled to Germany to secure new equipment, which means that the construction did not match the offer presented to the municipality. Add to this that the company obtained the construction permit from the Ministry of Industry after operation, and to this hour has not obtained the operating permit from it, as the Ministry imposed observations and conditions with which the company did not comply, which renders its work illegitimate throughout the past period.
The contract also stipulated the municipality’s right to have 200 tons of waste treated daily free of charge (the waste of Sidon and the Union of Sidon–Zahrani Municipalities), yet this clause disappeared upon implementation; the data indicate that the company stipulated, in a blackmailing manner — after the plant was ready — the cancellation of the clause and the conversion of all the waste into material subject to payment. The successive municipal councils bear responsibility for this concession, the perpetrator of which everyone is evading declaring.
And upon seeking the official correspondence between the municipality and the company before the work began, we were informed of the disappearance of the correspondence between 20 January and 30 March 2012. This is a claim that departs from the truth, as it appears that someone tried to conceal the documents of that period, which include the decision to concede the free treatment of the 200 tons — especially since the company sent a letter to the municipality dated 30 March 2012 in which it states: “After we were notified of your concession of the free treatment of 200 tons.”
When the current Council was asked to clarify the concession decision, those concerned denied its existence, and polling the opinions of members of the previous Council also showed their complete denial of any knowledge of it.
What does this concession mean? It means that the company’s management collected from public funds, as payment for treating the free quantity, from late 2012 until the end of 2023, around 70 million US dollars without any right. Accordingly, if the current Council is serious about addressing the matter, it must determine the responsibility of the party that made the concession, and if it insists on ignoring this, the Council must investigate precisely and announce the results. There is no doubt that the successive councils share the responsibility, and therefore this clause is essential in any discussion, contrary to the claim of one official when he said: “You want to place the responsibility on the Municipal Council, while there are ministers and a council of ministers who passed the deal.”
Does the current Municipal Council open the path of real correction and defend Sidon's interest, or do political commitments and narrow electoral interests prevail?
Likewise, the cost of treatment must be reviewed; the contract stipulated that the cost range between 25 and 45 dollars per ton, only to settle suddenly at 85 dollars for two years and then 95 dollars for the following two years pursuant to the Council of Ministers’ decision in July 2012. Returning to the decision reveals the suspicions, especially since the original contract amounts had accounted for the value of the recyclable materials and the organic waste.
With regard to supervision, the successive municipal councils have shown continuous negligence, to the point that the role of the oversight company that was mandated was hollowed out and marginalized from the management of the waste plant, amid marginalization and indifference from the municipality.
This disregard is manifested in the stance of the Municipal Council and its head when the company prevented two members of the municipal oversight committee from entering the plant and inspecting it.
If the Municipal Council is serious about following up, it must activate the terms of the contract that allow strict measures to be taken in the event that the company’s management breaches its responsibilities.
However, doubts still trouble citizens regarding the Council’s seriousness, in view of the statements of the mayor (head of the Union) supporting the plant’s policies at the expense of Sidon’s interests.
Recently, officials and ministers announced a move toward concluding a new agreement, amid a complete sidelining of the role of the Sidon Municipal Council; this reflects a political attempt to stall the crisis and entrench the transformation of the city into a waste dump.
This is despite the fact that the local authority is the primary party concerned with protecting the city’s properties and correcting their uses within its geographical scope.
So does the Municipal Council open the path of correction and defend the city’s interest, or do political commitments and electoral interests prevail?
