BEIRUT (Dispatches) – Lebanon’s chairman of the parliament’s public works and transport committee Nazih Najem says there are 49 "highly dangerous” containers at Beirut’s port, Elnashra news website reported.
"Some of these containers have been at the port since 2009 and they have been neglected since then,” Najem said, adding that investigations must be conducted to check why these containers have not been removed until this moment from the port.
Two huge explosions rocked Beirut’s port on Aug. 4, destroying a big part of the city and causing damage with a cost estimated at over 15 billion U.S. dollars.
Lebanon on Thursday unveiled a compensation program for the thousands of homes and businesses devastated by the blast.
President Michel Aoun signed a decree allocating 100bn Lebanese pounds ($66m at the official exchange rate, or $13m on the black market) to the program, his office said.
It added that the army and Beirut municipality would be tasked with setting up a mechanism to distribute the funds.
The compensation would go to owners of homes and businesses damaged in the explosion, which left more than 190 dead and destroyed swathes of the capital, a source at the presidency told AFP.
The army last week said it had surveyed 19,115 businesses and 962 restaurants damaged by the explosion.