Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun will allocate part of the World Bank loan to finance removing rubble from the Beirut Port and to pay for the transport of hazardous materials, according to the Minister of Public Works and Transport Michel Najjar.
A statement issued by the office of caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab said that Lebanon will pay the German firm Combi Lift to transport 52 containers of hazardous material, which it had collected last month, away from the port.
According to the contract made with the state, Combi Lift will receive $20 million to transport the material.
Just days ago, Lebanon’s Parliament approved the $246 million loan agreement which came as part of the World Bank’s Emergency Crisis and COVID-19 Response Social Safety Net Project (ESSN).
The purpose of the loan was to provide financial assistance to the most vulnerable and impoverished families in Lebanon.
Despite coming in fresh USD, the funds are being distributed in Lebanese pounds, ensuring monthly cash transfers of 800,000 LBP (less than $100/month) to over 100,000 families.
However, it appears that the country has decided to use part of that loan to clean the Beirut Port over 7 months since the blast and a month after the German firm collected the material, which it said could have caused a second Beirut blast.
