Metn residents keep up protest against power lines
For the fourth day in a row, residents of Ain Saadeh-Mansourieh in the Metn region continued their protest on Tuesday against the resumption of work to install high-voltage power lines above residential areas and educational edifices.
MPs Ghassan Mukhaiber and Ibrahim Kanaan from the Reform and Change Bloc of MP Michel Aoun, Sami Gemayel, representing the Phalange Party, Lebanese Forces member Eddy Abi Lamaa and Father Marwan Tabet, the secretary general of Catholic schools in Lebanon also joined the protesters.
Demonstrators said that such electricity wires have a negative effect on public health as well as on the area”s economy and environment, and called for keeping the power lines as they were before or installing them underground.
The Council of Development and Reconstruction (CDR) has been installing the wires between five Catholic schools in Mansourieh-Ain Najem, affecting 13,000 students and 200 private homes, the demonstrators said in their first protest on Saturday.
Mukhaiber said he would continue to support residents of Metn until an appropriate solution is reached. "We want executive decisions by the CDR and Cabinet," he said.
Kanaan said MPs and other officials from the Metn region would start meeting with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the ministers and members of the CDR to reach a suitable solution.
"This is a humanitarian matter and not a political one," he said. "All attempts to change the aspect of this subject will fail because it is a living, environmental and national issue that is related to people”s security and health."
Abi Lamaa called on the Water and Energy Ministry to take the issue into consideration and halt the installation process.
"I also urge the council of ministers to make a courageous decision because people”s health is worth it," he said.
Tabet urged all environmental bodies and media outlets to cover the protest, which he said, "will continue every day until Cabinet tackles this humanitarian issue."
Energy Minister Alain Tabourian contacted Kanaan on Monday and told him that he had sent a memo to the CDR, vowing to follow up on the issue and find a solution.