Editing Sidon (section)

===The former ''Makab'' (waste dump) and the treatment plant ===
Near the southern entrance to the city used to be a 'rubbish mountain' called at the time by the locals the ''Makab''; namely, a 600,000 cubic metre heap that reached the height of a four-story building. It was originally created to dispose of the remains of buildings destroyed in Israeli air strikes during the 1982 invasion, but it then became the main dump for the city. Growing out of the sea, it became an environmental hazard, with [[medical waste]] and plastic bags polluting nearby fishing grounds.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}

Sidon politicians, including the Hariri family, failed for decades to resolve the ''Makab'' crisis—which has endangered residents' health (especially during episodic burning). In 2004, Engineer Hamzi Moghrabi, a Sidon native, conceived the idea to establish a treatment plant for the city's decades-old chronic waste problem. He established the privately funded IBC Enviro and the treatment plant became operational in 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chami |first=Hanadi |date=4 October 2012 |title=Saida to get rid of trash mountain |url=http://www.businessnews.com.lb/cms/Story/StoryDetails/2189/Saida-to-get-rid-of-trash-mountain |access-date=17 September 2023 |website=Lebanon Opportunities |language=en-US}}</ref>

The Ministry of Environment came up with a $50,000+ plan to clean the whole area and transform the dump into a green space, along with other heaps in the country. Qamla beach in Sidon, a coast in close proximity to the Sea Castle, witnessed a large municipal cleanup in May 2011, as it was an easy target of rubbish being washed up by the Makab. These plans aim to revive the former glory of the city's coasts and attract tourists who avoided swimming in Sidon's sea before. The project of cleaning the region where the waste dump has already started, and currently a waves-barrier is being built, and the vast bulk of the waste dump being cleared.<ref>{{cite news |last=Antelava |first=Natalia |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8426091.stm |title=Lebanese city's mountain of rubbish |work=BBC News |date=2009-12-25 |access-date=2015-03-16 |archive-date=15 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615032531/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8426091.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.business24-7.ae/Articles/2009/11/Pages/24112009/11252009_73db570b8298406b974037f9b3a23bbb.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091127204925/http://www.business24-7.ae/Articles/2009/11/Pages/24112009/11252009_73db570b8298406b974037f9b3a23bbb.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-date=27 November 2009|title=Mountain of rubbish overwhelms Sidon|work=Emirates 24/7|access-date=15 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iloubnan.info/environment/actualite/id/37182/titre/Sidon-chokes-under-rubbish-dump|title=Sidon chokes under rubbish dump|access-date=15 September 2014|archive-date=2 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402141156/http://www.iloubnan.info/environment/actualite/id/37182/titre/Sidon-chokes-under-rubbish-dump|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=108602|title=Syringes plague Sidon beach as dump spills medical waste|work=The Daily Star Newspaper - Lebanon|access-date=15 September 2014}}</ref>