New containers of acid were discovered at the Port of Beirut recently, as the work to remove hazardous substances from the port’s warehouses continues.
The total number of containers to be disposed of is now 52 after 3 new containers of hazardous substances were discovered recently, Beirut Port chief Bassem Al-Kaissi told Asharq Al-Awsat on Sunday.
The damaged containers, currently being emptied in order to be stored in new containers and shipped overseas, were found to contain 8 different kinds of acids.
This comes after the necessary reports for each container were secured from the Environment Ministries of Lebanon and Germany, in order to ensure that the shipping process will take place in accordance with European laws and regulations.
For context, Lebanon signed a contract with a German company a few months ago to dispose of the dangerous materials stored at Beirut Port.
In the meantime, the Lebanese Army continues to perform daily tasks at Beirut Port, including an assignment, ongoing for the past week, to check 725 containers whose contents and owners are unknown, out of 10,000 total containers stored at the port.
The Army has, so far, checked 656 of those, none of which were found to contain dangerous materials, while work is in progress on the remaining ones.
It’s noteworthy that some of those containers are difficult to unlock due to the damage they received during the port blast.