On June 6, local authorities finally demolished a private home illegally built decades before on Abou Ali, a public beach about 50 miles north of Beirut – a major win for a group of NGOs and citizens called Coast for All. This group has come together to fight the illegal construction that is threatening the Lebanese coastline and preventing the public from accessing the sea and beaches.
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Back in the 1970s, someone illegally built a small home on Abou Ali beach, one of the last public beaches along the Lebanese coastline.
In 2018, the owners of the home tried to block public access to the beach by illegally building a wall. That was the final straw for members of a group called Coast for All, who sprang into action, eventually getting local authorities to agree to demolish the illegal structure. Our Observer, Clara El Khoury, a volunteer with another organisation called Save Kfaraabida, took part in this fight:
The owners started by cutting off access to the beach from the road. Then, they built a wall to prevent people from accessing the beach. We tore down the wall and restored access.
We don’t know if they have investors, but last summer, they started to do a lot of work on the home, transforming it. They started a bunch of construction. They had a huge water reservoir brought in, for example. For us, these were clues that they were trying to illegally privatise the beach. So we joined forces with a number of other associations and filed a complaint with local authorities. The Ministry of Public Works decided [on May 4, 2023] that the building needed to be demolished.
‘We are situated on the coast but we cannot reach the coast, we cannot see the coast’
The demolition marks a major advance for this coalition actively fighting illegal construction along the coastline.
A wave of illegal privatisation took place during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), but illegal construction along the coast continues to this day. Mohammad Ayoub is the director of Nahnoo (which means “us”), an organisation dedicated to protecting public spaces. He helped to map these violations.
Lebanon is on a coast of 220 kilometers: 80% is impacted with violations while only 20% are accessible to people. We are situated on the coast but we cannot reach the coast, we cannot see the coast, we cannot walk on the coast: there is no access to it. The Lebanese law says, in a 1925 law, that all the sand beaches and the rock beaches are in public domain. Building anything on it is illegal.
One of the most dangerous projects we have identified is led by a company called Azur Bleu. Its owner asked the government for permission to carry out maintenance work on his land, located near the sea. And he finally launched a resort. He demolished the shoreline, built a new jetty on the sea, and erected a swimming pool and a lot of buildings. This is more than a violation, it’s madness. That’s why we demonstrated to protest. We’ve managed to stop the work, but we don’t know what will happen to this space.
‘They’re killing marine life’
Whether they are carried out by investors or private owners, these illegal coastline construction projects threaten marine ecosystems. Jina Talj is a marine biologist and the director of an NGO called Diaries of the Ocean. She’s been speaking out about the devastating impact of these projects on biodiversity:
When they build these kinds of resorts, they dump all the waste into the sea, without treating it. They’re killing marine life, forcing it to move, because they’re destroying its habitat.
In some cases, there are places where there are unique habitats and rare species. In the North of Byblos, for example, a building is supposed to go over a cave, where we can find a lot of seals. Very rare species live here and must be protected.
They often seek to build on the vermetid platforms (tide pools), which are unique ecosystems: we call them ‘biodiversity hotspots’. Many marine species live there. They are more than just rocks: they protect the coast from extreme events such as storms, which are becoming increasingly frequent with climate change. Many fish eaten in Lebanon lay their eggs here. These projects are destroying these species.
A law adopted in 2017 requires owners of buildings built illegally on the coast before 1994 to pay a special tax. Many activists are frustrated that the law doesn’t require the buildings to be demolished.
“It’s a way for the government to collect money since the economic crisis has intensified, but it doesn’t solve the problem of privatization and destruction of the coast,” said Mohammad Ayoub.
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