Member of Parliament Farid El-Khazen has unilaterally proposed a law that aims to exempt residents of the city of Jounieh and the towns of Zouk Mosbeh, Zouk Mikael, Ain El-Rehaneh, Aintoura and Jeita from the first 3,600 Lebanese pounds of the meter fee, in addition to deducting 5,000 Lebanese pounds from the rehabilitation allowance, as well as deducting the value of the first 400 kilowatt-hours of monthly consumption for each household, until a permanent, sustainable and healthy solution is found for the Zouk thermal power plant. 

The aforementioned plant has posed serious ecological, environmental and health threats from which residents of neighboring areas have suffered since the factory’s construction. However, instead of finding radical solutions to this terrible situation, such as shutting down the plant or replacing fuel with gas, officials continue to evade responsibility by offering piecemeal solutions that address the consequences rather than the causes. As such, this law comes to recognize the crimes and continuous damage caused by the state’s policies within the energy field, exemplified by the proposed exemption, which is considered to be an attempt to compensate for the harm caused to the community, but which dismisses the real impact of the environmental and health disaster on residents, and disregards their unequivocal right to a healthy life.