Thousands in Beirut Protest Trash Crisis

The people of Beirut, Lebanon took to the streets to demand the government carry out one of its most basic and important duties: taking out the trash.

The New York Times reports that thousands of people amassed to demand the government do something about giant piles of trash that have sullied the sights and smells of a city often referred to as the "Paris of the Middle East." Rather than doing one if its most fundamental jobs, the government responded with tear gas, water cannons, and less than lethal munitions, injuring dozens, some severely.

Lebanon is in the midst of a political crisis as it does not have a president and parliament has just perpetuated itself after being unable to agree to new elections. The small country is made up of various religious and ethnic groups that have a testy relationship with each other. The country still has not fully recovered from its long and brutal civil war which lasted from 1975 to 1990.

Exacerbating these issues is the fact the Syrian Civil War has caused Lebanon to absorb more than 1.2 million refugees fleeing the terror of both the Islamic State and government of Bashar al-Assad.

The government previously sent Beirut's waste to a landfill south of the city, but that location was filled to beyond capacity, causing protests in the surrounding communities, including blockades of the road leading to it. The government promised these protesters a solution and they then opened the road, but as the government failed to find a solution, they have resumed their blockade, causing the current crisis.

Lebanon's prime minister admitted that the use of force against the peaceful demonstrators was excessive, but he also did not offer up any possible solutions to the current impasses, suggesting the citizens of Beirut will continue to have to cope with the problem.