In 2017, they breathed a sigh of relief, after the city district court ruled that all ammonia in the bay had been emptied and disposed of, but until now it is still in the process of being emptied. • Decision-makers must act to ensure that a similar event does not occur here.
There is not a single Haifa resident who has been exposed to the terrifying videos from Beirut and the number of victims - and in his head did not run the frightening question of what would have happened if. Haifa Bay, industrialized and tired, laden with hazardous materials of varying degrees of explosiveness. Some of the same hazardous substances are essential for different productive sectors, chief among them the agriculture industry that uses different fertilizers.
The destruction in the port of Beirut after the explosion - difficult images to view
In 2017, the residents of the Haifa metropolitan area and the surrounding area, numbering more than a million people, breathed a sigh of relief after the city district court ruled that all the ammonia in the bay had been emptied and disposed of. After the cheers of joy dissipated, it became clear that the ammonia would continue to be transported on the area’s roads in tankers loaded with hazardous materials, which would reach the port by ships. And from all the ammonia? He is still in the process of being emptied. Even when it is completed, there is still a danger in the presence of the building to residential neighborhoods, schools, the beaches of Haifa and the Krayot, major arteries on the Gulf roads and naval bases in the city.
Like many others who have lived or are living in the area, the information about the danger lurking for me and my family from the presence of the petrochemical plants did not bother me on a daily basis. But now, with the harsh images and testimonies from Beirut never ceasing to go up on social media, with their descriptions of horror, less than a two-hour drive from Haifa - government and local government decision-makers must work harder to ensure a similar event does not occur here.
