One month after deadly blast in Beirut
MSF’s Jonathan Whittall details the effects on people
ON AUGUST 4, a powerful blast in port warehouses storing highly explosive material in Lebanon, Beirut killed more than 200 people and injured more than 6 500 others, according to the latest report from the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The blast sent seismic shock waves that smashed buildings and shattered windows across the Lebanese capital.
Warehouses storing medicines and vaccines in the port were damaged, five private and public hospitals were severely impacted and the country’s largest dialysis centre, in central Beirut, was destroyed.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams have provided medical and mental health support to most-affected communities.
In a Q&A, former MSF emergency response co- ordinator Jonathan Whittall details the effects of the explosion on people living in various areas of Beirut.
What have you seen in Beirut since the port explosion?
Lebanon has been battered by wave after wave of crisis.
The explosion in Beirut has exposed needs and vulnerabilities that until now were hidden just beneath the surface. Now, in the streets of the city, you can see the visible destruction of infrastructure alongside the recently exposed needs of a population who have experienced multiple shocks.
The people whose houses have been destroyed experienced an economic collapse just months before the explosion, pushing many of them into poverty.
Some had fled war in recent years before seeking refuge in Lebanon; most have lived through the political uncertainty of the past year’s protests. And like the rest of the world, Lebanon has also experienced a pandemic that has put huge strain on the country.
Can you describe the humanitarian response so far?
In these first weeks after the explosion, the humanitarian response to people’s emergency needs has been primarily delivered by Lebanese civil society organisations, social movements, community members and volunteers.
Following the explosion, people ferried the wounded to hospital in their cars. People opened their homes to those who had been made homeless. Across the affected areas, people have mobilised to provide food, clean water, essential items and emergency health care. Volunteers have been cleaning up the streets and patching up the wounded.
In the hours after the explosion, Beirut’s hospitals received thousands of wounded. This came at a time when hospitals were overstretched. As the economic situation worsened and private health care became unaffordable, many Lebanese turned to the public health system. In addition, many public hospitals were under strain due to Covid-19.
But despite the serious challenges faced by Lebanon’s health-care system, the first response and treatment of the wounded was carried out by incredibly dedicated health workers, some of whose hospitals had been destroyed or damaged by the blast.
The affected communities in Beirut, and those responding to these multiple crises, have been commended for their “resilience”.
However, what has happened in Lebanon is a series of man-made crises from which people should not be continually expected to bounce back. States should protect people, not generate the need for endless resilience.
What gaps you are seeing?
The traditional aid system is taking time to be fully mobilised for this response.
We have seen a lot of assessments carried out, but this does not always translate into immediate action on the ground. We hear from a lot of community members that they are tired of assessment teams coming to survey their needs and then leaving.
As MSF, we tried to avoid this by providing hygiene kits while identifying which patients require chronic medication refills.
In this way, we avoid asking questions without already taking action. But our work is a small part of the overall relief and reconstruction effort that is needed, and other organisations will need to step in as the initial responses from the community themselves comes under strain.
Traditionally, humanitarian aid in Lebanon has often been provided based on the nationality or legal status of the recipient. This means that some aid is given to Syrian and Palestinian refugees, while other initiatives focus on vulnerable Lebanese communities.
This approach to aid delivery can be a hindrance to a real needs-based provision of assistance in a context of multiple concurrent crises.
In the current situation it is impossible to draw a line between the cause of people’s suffering – an economic crisis, Covid-19, war in neighbouring countries, or the port explosion – nor is it possible to divide up those who need assistance based on whether they are a refugee, a migrant or Lebanese.
The explosion in Beirut has exposed needs and vulnerabilities that until now were hidden just beneath the surface Jonathan Whittall former MSF emergency response co-ordinator
How do you see MSF’s role in emergencies like this one?
Our response is small compared to the collective efforts of the communities themselves, and our approach has been to adapt to fill the gaps, a flexibility that is enabled by our independent funding.
We will continue to play our part as an emergency humanitarian actor alongside our longer-running programmes that respond to chronic needs. But as the situation in Lebanon worsens, we need to see an aid system that can mobilise in response to overall needs caused by multiple crises, rather than only segments of suffering caused by this latest wave of disaster.