Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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BEIRUT: Beirut’s glittering waterfront district today is a far cry from its origins as an open-air dumping ground for the refuse and rubble of Lebanon’s Civil War. The Normandy Landfill lay on the ruins of what was once the hotel of the same name, and extended into the sea – an area that was later reclaimed and turned into the current waterfront district, also known as BIEL.
After the war ended, the area was included in a portfolio of land to be rehabilitated by the Council for Development and Reconstruction.
Solidere was tasked with the redevelopment of the space, embarking on a yearslong process of reclaiming the land to transform the dump into a vast 1.7-million-square-meter private waterfront district with an estimated value of around $10 billion.
Land reclamation projects like that of BIEL have been ubiquitous on Beirut’s coast since the Civil War, reshaping it over the intervening decades. Satellite imagery obtained by The Daily Star from a graduate student in waste management systems, Elias Azzi, shows this progressive transformation.
The lucrative history of Lebanese land reclamation
It is considered abnormal because it is abnormal. Between this and the inability to get some of the water sanitation stations hooked up to the sewage network is an issue.
After the war ended, the area was included in a portfolio of land to be rehabilitated by the Council for Development and Reconstruction.
Solidere was tasked with the redevelopment of the space, embarking on a yearslong process of reclaiming the land to transform the dump into a vast 1.7-million-square-meter private waterfront district with an estimated value of around $10 billion.
Land reclamation projects like that of BIEL have been ubiquitous on Beirut’s coast since the Civil War, reshaping it over the intervening decades. Satellite imagery obtained by The Daily Star from a graduate student in waste management systems, Elias Azzi, shows this progressive transformation.
The lucrative history of Lebanese land reclamation
It is considered abnormal because it is abnormal. Between this and the inability to get some of the water sanitation stations hooked up to the sewage network is an issue.
