LEBANON'S UNDERWATER LEANINGS

LEBANESE environmentalists on Saturday sank 10 old tanks and armoured vehicles to the bottom of Mediterranean Sea in a novel attempt to attract divers and create new habitats for marine life.

Three kilometres off the coast of the city of Sidon, a huge crane on the back of a ship manoeuvred  the military hardware into place over the water before dropping them down to seabed one after the other.

The initiative is to create an ''underwater park'' is spearheaded by a local group, ''Friends of the coast of Sidon'' which got the Lebanese army to hand over some of its old vehicles for the project.

''This will be a paradise for the divers and a place where we can develop underwater life,'' said  NGO  representative Kamel Kozbar, who hopes seaweed will soon cover the vehicles.

Lebanon boasts some 200 kilometres of Mediterranean coast but beaches have not been spared from a waste and garbage crisis that has plagued Lebanon for years.

In Sidon,  a mountain of smelly  trash has scarred the shoreline, despite the presence of a new waste management facility.

In a region fraught with tensions the latest project also has some political undertones. The tanks have been placed with their turrets facing towards Lebanon's southern foe Israel ''our solidarity for the Palestinian people,'' Kozbar said.
 [AFP]