The smell of paint goes and goes in the streets of Beir. In the fashion neighborhoods of Gemmayze y Mar Mijaelnewly remodeled buildings shine with their new colors. A fan of pastel tones – green, pink, yellow, blue – becomes the postcard of the last summers. Foreign tourists, on the other hand, turn their eyes and also photograph the remains of destruction that remain on the avenues adjacent to the port. Half decade after flying through the air, life has returned to these neighborhoods. But not all of her. In the middle of the morning, the neighbors no longer go out to the shared alley to have coffee. Nor is there a trace of the chickens They wandered freely for the same passage. On the horizon, yes, there is the perpetual reminder of the tragedy of the August 4, 2020. A tragedy that left a wound still to close.
Surrounded by the deep blue of the sky, the remains of the silos They star in the profile of the Lebanese capital in their encounter with the sea. Does five years2,750 tons of poorly stored ammonium nitrate caused one of the Larger non -nuclear explosions in history world. At least 220 people diedanother 6,000 were injured and 300,000 more were homeless at 6:07 p.m. on that Tuesday of August. Five years later, The city has not recovered. You may never do it. In the most affected neighborhoods, constant reminders of the tragedy remain. In front of a port still in ruins, the abandoned public building of the Lebanon electricityfrozen over time. Annihilated and crossed by such a brutal deflagration.
Archive – Material damage caused by the explosions recorded on August 4 in the port of the capital of Lebanon, Beirut / Marwan Naamani/dpa – Archivo
He just frozen in the seconds after the explosion. In its dozens of high, there is not an intact window. At his feet, a tangle of irons prevents access to the building. “Symbolize the INEFICIENCY AND DISFUNCTIONALITY OF THE STATE and its abandonment of all public functions, in addition to the collapse of infrastructure, “he acknowledges Mona Harbco -founder and research director of the Beirut Urban Laboratory (LUB) at the American University of Beirut. “Five years after the explosion, there are still Very clear physical scars in the city related to it, so that given the strategic location of the port, to this day, the Lebanese and Beirutis living in these neighborhoods connected to the port and that pass by there They remember every day what happened “tell the newspaper.
The State, missing
That August 4, the State was not seen. Either to the municipality nor to any type of public representative. “Unfortunately we remain the same,” he confirms Elie MansourManager of the Planning and Urban Design Unit of the Program of United Nations For human settlements, known as Onu Hábatin Lebanon. In just seconds, Beirut changed. Beyond the port, the explosion destroyed schools, streets, hospitals and homesand many businesses were forced to close. This, in turn, caused estimated economic losses between 2,900 and 3.5 billion dollars. Within a radius of five kilometers from the port area, 86% of companies suffered damage to deflagration.
The absence of institutions did not mean the end. A survey conducted in 2022 by the LUB revealed that among the 60% and 80% of the apartments and businesses damaged they had been repaired. Most, but in its entirety, thanks to the initiatives of local and international oenegés Already donations of the massive Lebanese diaspora. “The neighborhoods affected by the explosion have been greatly rebuilt, although there are still indications of physical destruction and damage, and even demographically, there have been changes in the populationbut we can say that life has returned to many of these neighborhoods, “says Harb.” However, there are certain areas where Life has not returnedbecause no reconstruction has been carried out or, if it has been carried out, the buildings are still empty, “he adds.
“Tenacity of the Lebanese people”
“It is another sample of the tenacity of the Lebanese people to survive Another episode of violencerebuild and stay attached to their homes, its streets, their businesses, their lives and their context, “the researcher shows. Beyond the precious renewed historical buildings, illuminated to each sunset by An animated nightlifeenviable worldwide, there are things that have not returned. “Apart from material destruction, the explosion exposed the fragility of our urban, institutional and social systems, leaving behind a physically wounded and symbolically fractured city “reconoce Mansour.
Therefore, two years after the explosion, from UN Habitat they launched Confa project for housing rehabilitation in Beirut and the recovery of cultural and creative industries in these neighborhoods. “It’s much more than fixing the walls, it’s about Repair urban and human fabric “he confirms to this newspaper. “The public space itself created social links among people, but the explosion destroyed all those memories and altered the social pact between the neighbors who shared the coffee or the neighbor who passed through the house of another neighbor and greeted himself,” he laments. In addition, in many corners with hardly any scars of the explosion, the Gentrification ghost.
Gentrification
“It is well known in Lebanon Real estate promoters take advantage of each conflicteach crisis and every disaster; It is then that the sale of land increases and when the evictions occur, “says Harb.” Without a doubt, Mar Mikhael and Gemmayze are neighborhoods where these real estate dynamics contributed significantly to expels people “he laments. Three out of five homes in these neighborhoods are inhabited by tenants living for rent. Prices do not stop uploading. New languages are heard through the streets, next to the tracheteum of cabin suitcases. There are entire buildings available in AirBnB. Each month, new restaurants and menus appear only in English fleeing from the native culture.
Walking through the streets of Mar Mikhael and Gemmayze, hardly one imagines that, just under two kilometers, a historical explosion took place. He 43 -meter deep crater Give this. For urban planners and architects, the return to life in these devastated neighborhoods half decade could be a “good history” of reconstruction in a short time, as Harb alleges. But, beyond the newly painted historical buildings and the return of many neighbors, although not all, there are nuances that keep the wound open and are all those “lost opportunities”. In a city with just A square meter of public space by residentdestruction could have given way to green. To a live green, not cake, that is for all the Beirutis. It was not so.
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