Uploaded on 2015-04-20 by Jdebenito

[1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14295420951358887.jpg This picture represents the northern part of the city of Chekka in Lebanon. One can see how the city has grown next and around an industriyl plant (though the picture is not very good you can see some storage -covered and uncovered- of industrial materials ... and imagine the rest). The plant was sourcing its raw materials from the mountains in the vicinity and exporting part of its product by the sea (via a private jetty you can see on the left hand side). Lack of proper urban planning for decades has allowed that private housing and some public utilities be built near the pant, without taking in consideration the impact of the latter. What is not visible in the picture is the impact of the plant and its activities in the disorderly grwoing city. Frst and foremost is the increasing number of private traffic that is crossing industrial (usually on-road but sometimes even off-road) heavy vehicles in an urban infrastructure that was not conceived for such useage. Increasing movements of pedestrians, including kids going to school or street playing, have not been countered with corresponding sidewalks, zebra crossing, gardens or playing fields. Lastly, certain emissions (noise, dust, ...) that were not meant to affect people -as no people should be around!- may affect the population living next to the industrial premises.