Disaster Waste Management Challenges and Enabling Factors for Strategic Planning: Case of the Beirut Port Explosion

Abstract

Disasters occur in both developed and developing countries and tend to generate significant quantities of construction and demolition (C&D) wastes. Developed countries have previously developed and implemented adequate disaster waste management (DWM) strategies to facilitate their recovery processes. Lebanon, alike many developing countries, has struggled to overcome various technical, administrative, managerial, legal, institutional, and financial limiting factors, which hindered the development of adequate DWM action plans. In Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, a devastating explosion at the port resulted in the generation of around 800,000 tons of C&D wastes. Accordingly, the ultimate aim of this research is to develop a DWM action plan for Beirut and the specific objectives are to assess the DWM strategies currently implemented in Lebanon, to identify the prevailing challenges and comprehend the respective enabling factors, and to conduct a comparative assessment to compare the DWM plans between Lebanon and other selected countries. The developed DWM plan that is ready to be adopted and implemented in Lebanon can be contextualized in other developing countries.

The challenges Lebanon faced with the management of the construction and demolition wastes were assembled through conducting a well-developed in-depth interview guide. As such, interviewees were selected from both governmental and non-governmental organizations due to their knowledge, expertise, and involvement on the topic of DWM of the Beirut Port. The interviews were later transcribed, and thematically analyzed. The DWM challenges that should be tackled before developing DWM plans were tabulated in a comparative assessment table and were compared across different countries. These challenges were selected as they represent the most significant ones that negatively impacted the DWM development process in both developed and developing countries. Based on the literature review, no country was able to successfully implement a DWM plan without determining the enabling factors for these challenges that were tabulated, thereby qualifying them to be significant challenges worthy to be selected to conduct the comparative assessment. Each of the challenges presented in the table were scored and cumulative scores pertaining to each country gave an indication of its DWM performance. Scores were given to each challenge based on a set of criteria that should be available to overcome the challenge; all of which are presented in a rubric. Higher scores were given to countries who satisfied the criteria under each challenge, which thereby indicated that the country is facing less challenges in developing and implementing its DWM plans. Lower scores were given to countries who failed to satisfy the criteria under each challenge, which indicated that the country is highly challenged in managing its DW.

The findings of the thematic analysis revealed that there are various technical, administrative, managerial, legal, institutional, and financial limiting factors that are challenging the DWM process in Lebanon. Interviewees believed that the absence of required technologies, infrastructure, expertise, and DWM guidelines are all technical challenges that hinder the management of disaster wastes. The absence of contingency, risk reduction, implementation, and stakeholder plans are considered administrative and managerial challenges worthy to be mentioned. Interviewees also stressed on the significant legal and institutional challenges faced as a result of the absence of a clear legal and institutional framework to govern the initiatives of DWM plans. It is not to underestimate the financial challenges faced due to the lack of adequate financial resources to support the management process.

The comparative assessment also portrayed the enabling factors that should be contextualized by Lebanon and other developing countries to succeed in DWM planning. It was proposed that inventories should be developed and they should include all the machines, expertise, and infrastructure needed. A DWM guideline could also enhance the decision making process regarding the best DW management methods. A proposed contingency, risk reduction, implementation, stakeholder mapping plans should be development before the occurrence of a disaster to facilitate coordination between stakeholders. As well, the development of a legal and institutional framework consisting of decrees to govern the initiatives regarding DWM should be well developed and implemented; that includes a budgeting strategy to the recovery process.

Hence, this research will have a great significance at the national level as it will assess the DWM challenges and enabling factors which will set the ground for the development of the elements of an action plan, one of which is a contingency plan, specific for Lebanon. These plans will guide stakeholders on what should be included in a plan; to ensure that it is well-developed and implemented. As such, the contingency plan must include a stakeholder mapping plan, waste characterization initiatives, developed inventories of technical, human, and financial expertise, infrastructure preparedness initiatives, waste treatment flow charts and decision trees, and finally closure and monitoring plans. This will help other developing countries draw resemblance between the Lebanese case and their own; to follow a similar process and develop their own DWM strategies that aim for a successful implementation. As well, this research is one of the few studies that will be available in the literature to help in the development of a DWM action plan that specifically manages C&D wastes instead of disasters as a whole. This will allow developing countries to differentiate between efforts implemented to manage their post- disaster wastes and those implemented to overcome the disaster generally.