Originally Posted by
BalticSailor
It does seem to do more with your own disappointment in politicians - which, from what I've seen, at least in USA tend to be aggressively anti-science. Worldwide, often the case is not that someone in charge of things is "anti-science", it's that they never bother to ask an expert, or, being outside of the field in question, don't ask the most qualified experts. They'd have no problem with following recommendations, it's just that they don't get particularly good ones, if any. There's also the problem with having to handle many issues at the same time, and therefore prioritizing them - which sometimes leads to important ones being pushed too far back one the to-do list. I suspect some combination of the two were at play in Lebanon; I'm not an expert on economics or politics, but Lebanon appears to have had many pressing issues. Amidst severe economic crisis and political problems it's not that hard to overlook logistics of some confiscated fertilizer. And most times that would not lead to any dire consequences. This simply happened to be one of the "other times".
In all honesty, I'm not sure that I would have. Not with the information they had at the time, anyway. If I was asked whether it's ok to store 2750 tons of confiscated ammonium nitrate in a warehouse at the port, I'd probably figure the storage in question was to be temporary, and say "provided that the associated safety precautions are taken, sure". It is, after all, a very common substance to be shipped around and stored for periods of time. At that point, I'd have no knowledge of how long they intend to store it, and whether any other dangerous cargo would eventually arrive at the port at any point in the future. So, as far as the decision regarding its temporary storage is concerned, I see nothing that I could have done better.
Sure, I would request moving of the ammonium nitrate eventually, though I don't have any reason to believe I could write a more persuasive letter to judges or government officials than the customs officials at the Beirut had done over the years. I could write a lengthy risk assessment report concerning storage of potentially explosive material in vicinity of the city, and near the storage area for country's strategic reserve of wheat - but after that, it's out of my hands; I'd have no control over whether anyone might even read it, much less decide to act on it. I could request it being moved to a more appropriate storage area, but I cannot conjure one out of thin air, and if there are no such areas, and no funds to build one (and would they even consider building a dedicated storage for goods they typically don't even have), my request would, in all likelihood, be turned down. If I were asked whether this issue is more pressing than, say, shortage of hospital capacity due to COVID or the extreme and growing poverty rate in the country - I would not feel qualified to answer.
Of course, I would strongly object to a cargo of fireworks being placed in vicinity of the nitrate. The question is - would they even bother to ask me? Just as I'd prohibit any maintenance works that might generate heat and sparks in the warehouse, yet would I personally patrol the area to ensure these rules are being followed? Probably not. I've other work to do, and at some point I'd just have to rely on trust that my suggestions would be kept in mind and followed. And even then, would any of my precautions be enough in case of unrelated fire somewhere in the port? I don't know. Hindsight is 20/20, but at the time, I cannot certainly say that something could have been done to prevent this.