The effects of the catastrophe are still being felt in the capital of Lebanon.
Clarín spoke with an Argentine doctor who works in the country.
John Tenth
08/04/2021 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 08/04/2021 6:00 AM
It was in December 2020 that Marcelo Fernández (51) saw for the first time in person the epicenter of the explosion in the port of Beirut that had
devastated the city five months earlier
.
After following what had happened that August 4 from a distance, he had prepared himself to find a scene of some rubble and damaged buildings.
The photos of the catastrophe, however,
could not prepare him
for what he finally saw on the scene.
“
It gave me the creeps
.
And every time I pass there, I get the same feeling again.
The violence of the explosion and the shock wave is something that impresses, ”confesses Fernández, a doctor from Rosario who currently works as the
Chief of the Mission of Doctors without Borders
in
Lebanon, in a telephone conversation with Clarín.
Installed in Beirut since January 2021, Fernández passes at least once a week in front of the area of the explosion.
A year later, the reconstruction efforts have been almost nil and the landscape of destruction remains practically unchanged.
Far from appearing suddenly,
the affected area opens gradually
.
Traveling on top of a car, several hundred meters before you begin to see destroyed buildings, debris, twisted metal remains.
There are some constructions that have been repaired, since it is an area of high purchasing power, but there are many whose only destination is to be demolished.
At the epicenter of the explosion are the remains of the silos that still remain standing.
Sunken ships can be seen beyond.
Among the remains of the structures, patches of vegetation are seen emerging from the ground.
After passing the place, the postcard of the damage is repeated for several blocks in an identical way to what was seen on the other side.
"I still haven't been able to take a picture of him, I'm ashamed,
" says Fernández, who points out that the impact of the explosion is still raw in Beirut, where there is no one who does not remember what he was doing at exactly 6:07 p.m. on April 4. August.
A year later, the accounts of the details of that day are still fresh in the memory.
Marcelo Fernández, the doctor from Rosario who is currently the Head of the Mission of Doctors without Borders in Lebanon.
Photo: MSF
In a city traumatized by the accumulation of tragedies, from the
desperate economic crisis and political chaos
to the ravages generated by the pandemic, the explosion is experienced as a kind of final blow to the system.
"
It was the last straw
, the trigger for a general sense of despair that seemed to ask 'what else can happen to us?"
A tragedy that still hangs in the air
There is a dimension to the explosion in the port of Beirut that can be narrated through the numbers.
The detonation occurred due to the accumulation
of hundreds of tons of
improperly stored
ammonium nitrates
in hangar number 12.
There were at least
214 dead, 6,500 wounded, 300,000 displaced
and great destruction in the city.
According to a UN report, some 9,700 buildings were damaged or destroyed.
View of a sunken ship, a sequel to the Beirut explosion.
Photo: EFE
The blows of the tragedy continue to be seen today in the
thousands of people with psychological consequences
who must live with the daily reminder of the catastrophe they experienced.
A deterioration in the level of mental health that cuts across a population that still reluctantly looks at treatments to deal with these types of problems.
“We are seeing
post-traumatic stress
effects
.
People do not go to the psychologist, and this manifests itself through physical symptoms, from chronic migraines to back pain and trouble sleeping.
Little by little they begin to open up to the question of mental health, but it is still a taboo subject, ”explains Fernández, who compares the current general mood to that perceived in Argentina after the 2001 collapse.
"There is a general feeling of
anguish
, of not knowing what is going to happen from one day to the next," he says.
One year after the explosion in Beirut, the condition of many buildings remains the same.
Photo: EFE
The persistence of the trauma can be attributed in part to the fact that the reconstruction of the affected area is practically at zero point due to the political crisis.
After Prime Minister Hasan Diab announced the resignation of his government after the explosion,
the country is still unable to form a government a year later
.
This situation not only complicates the organization of reconstruction efforts, but also paralyzes the arrival of promised aid from abroad to assist with this task.
France is one of the countries that is at the forefront of world assistance, but the requirement is that they
form a government and make structural changes.
In the last hours, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, appointed by parliament to try to form a government (the third to try after Diab's resignation), announced a
new postponement for the formation of a government
, after stating his failures " hopes "to create an Executive before the anniversary of the explosion.
A helicopter puts out a fire in the port of Beirut.
Photo STR / AFP
The Lebanese political class is also at the center of the accusations for stopping the investigation into the explosion. In a statement released on Monday, the NGO Amnesty International said that, over the past year, the Lebanese authorities have made
"tireless efforts" to protect politicians
and officials from scrutiny, which "has repeatedly hindered the course. Of the investigation".
According to leaked documents cited by the NGO, the customs, military and security authorities, as well as the Judicial Power, warned up to ten times to different national governments of the "dangerous reserves of chemical substances" that were stored in the port of Beirut.
Despite this,
no action was taken
to try to correct the situation.
A man carries an injured girl through rubble in downtown Beirut on August 4, 2020. AFP photo
Chronicle of a debacle
Many in Lebanon see the explosion in the port as the corollary of a
long-standing political and economic debacle
.
Corruption and negligence by the authorities are at the center of the accusations.
The exhaustion and fury unleashed by the tragedy only heightens the frustration that the 2019 protests failed in essence to change anything.
General view of the scene of the explosion in the port of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.
Photo by STR / AFP
The massive protests that broke out in October of that year after the government tried to impose a tax on WhatsApp calls were seen at the time as a
potential turning point
for the future.
For the first time, the revolts against the leadership, a sort of "all out," seemed to bring together the entire population of the country, historically divided on religious and political grounds into three clear factions: Christians, Sunnis and Shiites.
The failure of the movement to achieve its mission had an impact on the mood of the population and only
seemed to accentuate the crisis, which at this point is total
.
The local currency has depreciated at a precipitous rate, from 1,500 Lebanese liras per dollar, which was worth 18 months ago, to 15,000 liras today, which is the equivalent of one dollar.
Destruction along a street in the center of Lebanon's capital, Beirut.
Photo by STR / AFP
"I notice a sense of resignation in the population. I do not see an internal fury, but
I think it is closely linked to the recent past
, which was very traumatic. In some sectors there is latent the fear that if there are open demonstrations, there is a risk of fall into conflicts such as the civil war that the country experienced between 1975 and 1990, "explains Fernández.
The economic crisis affects crucial aspects, from medicine to energy provision.
There are problems in the supply of vaccines for diseases such as rabies and tetanus.
Having to
go to as many as 10 to 15 pharmacies to find a remedy
to treat high blood pressure is not unusual.
Power outages are constant and affect even the airport.
To load gasoline, it is sometimes necessary to queue for between two and three hours, and there is a fuel load limit of 20 liters per car.
Getting paracetamol is a luxury
.
A Lebanese army soldier and a man carry off a wounded man on August 4, 2020. AFP Photo
“In my house I have electricity supply from the network for only 2 hours a day, and then I have electricity thanks to generator equipment provided by the city.
There are 6 hours that I do not have electricity
, between 5 and 8 in the morning, and between 5 and 8 o'clock. In other words, when I get up and when I return from work, ”says the doctor from Rosario.
Due to his work, Fernández must travel the borders of Lebanon with Syria, an area that until some years was considered "hot" to which the
pandemic and the economic crisis have ended up cooling
.
"You no longer see the conflicts that were seen a few years ago. The border is completely closed due to the coronavirus, so there are no longer people trying to enter. To that we must add the catastrophic local situation, so there is not much incentive to come ", Explain.
The fire at the site of an explosion, on August 4, 2020. Photo by STR / AFP
There is a change that Fernández highlights as illustrative of the situation.
Until a few years ago, MSF doctors worked almost exclusively with Syrian refugees on the border,
today they have begun to treat Lebanese
, haunted by the situation.
Fernández remembers with a hint of longing the comments he received from many people when they found out that his next destination would be Lebanon.
"Everyone told me that I was going to meet warm and open people, almost as if they were Latin Americans. But for now, unfortunately,
all you see is sadness
."
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