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By Van Meguerditchian
BEIRUT: Preliminary
investigations concluded Thursday that water pouring into the southern bank
of Beirut River was mixed with a dye dumped by a nearby factory, giving it
the mysterious red color a day earlier.
Laboratory tests of samples from
the river indicated that the source of the coloration of the water was not
due to dumping from a slaughterhouse but dye wastes dumped by a factory in
either Hazmieh or Baabda, an official at the Environment Ministry, Saad
Elias, told The Daily Star Thursday.
“Preliminary results of the
tests indicated that there were no traces of blood in the water but some
color substance, but we are still unsure as to which type it is,” Elias
said, adding that it was probably the result of dumping by a fabric dye
factory.
Elias said that the ministry
decided to refer the samples to laboratories at the American University of
Beirut for further examination. “The samples were taken to the laboratories
of AUB to help us indicate the source of the coloration ... the tests will
take between six and seven days.”
At dawn Wednesday, the Beirut
River mysteriously turned blood red after a stream of unidentified red
liquid began pouring into it. The red water then flowed into the
Mediterranean Sea.
While government and local
officials visited the scene to investigate, the source of the coloration
remained elusive because of the complex structure of the sewage networks in
the area.
Elias, who is an adviser to
Environment Minister Nazem Khoury, said the ministry held multiple contacts
Thursday with all Internal Security Forces and the mayors of Hazmieh and
Baabda to speed up the investigation into the illegal dumping of dye into
the river.
The ISF was assigned by the
Beirut Prosecutor Wednesday to carry out an investigation and hold the
party responsible for the crime accountable.
“But the Environment Ministry
does not have the judicial and security prerogatives to press hard on the
issue ... we have to wait for the investigation to end to take action,”
said Elias.
According to security sources,
the AUB tests will be crucial to the course of the investigation. “Once the
tests on the samples are completed, police could use the results to aid
them in the search for the source of the colored water and the street it
originated from,” the source added.
Elias echoed the security
source, saying the ministry would wait for final results next week to make
an official statement on the incident.
But the technical limitations of
the Environment Ministry might delay investigations into the dumping of the
substance. Environmental experts have warned that the incident could have
catastrophic effects on the local ecosystem if the substance is discovered
to be industrial.
Officials at the Environment
Ministry say experts will be able to identify whether the substance is
industrial or organic once tests conclude next week.
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