City of Nahariya charged for negligence in handling asbestos waste

City charged for negligence in handling asbestos waste

The city of Nahariya in Isreal is being sued by two environmental organizations for failing to appropriately clean up dangerous amounts of asbestos waste in various public areas in the city.

The Isreal Union for Environmental Defense and a non-profit organization in Nahariya have filed a lawsuit against the city as well as the Environmental Protection Ministry. The suit claims that the city has not fulfilled its responsibility of dealing with the asbestos abatement issue even though the state had issued it a budget of 3 million shekels three months earlier for that specific purpose. The suit goes on to charge the ministry with a lack of enforcement to ensure that the city takes care of the problem. The EPM has written letters of warning and censure to the city but has not enforced any repercussions after the city neglected to follow up on them.

According to the IUED, piles of asbestos waste have been discovered in many public areas, exposing the city’s inhabitants to hazardous risks. The piles have been found near public buildings, including schools at different levels.

This has been an issue for years. Although many attempts have been made to force both the city and the ministry to take action, no progress has been made so far.

The IUED and the local non-profit are requesting the court to issue an order that requires the city to perform a city-wide asbestos waste clean up project and to also create a detailed, multi-year plan to prevent such a disaster from happening again.

The city issued a statement saying that getting rid of the asbestos has already been a top priority, and that the demands of the lawsuit were for actions already taking place.

The Environmental Protection Ministry is awaiting the court date to issue its official response.

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