Water crisis in Lebanon

Problems

• Through years of civil strife, Lebanon’s water governance and infrastructure have suffered neglect and damage. Less than half of Lebanese are estimated to be connected to official water supplies, which often do not work properly. As a result, nearly one in three Lebanese buys alternative sources of drinking water, usually from mobile water trucks or in bottles, and those who cannot afford to purchase their waterfall through the cracks rely on poor-quality water for their households. Water quality is also deteriorating as a result of surface and underground water pollution caused by decades of urbanization, lack of proper waste management systems, and irregular dumping of waste of all kinds in rivers, sea outfalls, and valleys.
  
  Lebanon is suffering increasingly frequent droughts, overexploitation, and pollution of groundwater and rivers, threatening the country's future food security. Additionally, years of mismanagement and fuel and financial crises have caused a public water service crisis. Lebanon's water supply sector has come to the brink of total collapse and threatening access to safe and sufficient drinking water for much of the population.

• The water resource management challenge

  Year after year, Lebanon experiences an increasing number of heatwaves. With a two °C temperature increase, the Mount Lebanon mountain chain snow cover is expected to reduce by 40%. As this range feeds the majority of Lebanon's rivers and aquifers, there is a legitimate risk of those rivers drying up and groundwater levels falling, contributing to further aridity and erosion of the land. Climate-induced extreme weather events, like the fires and floods that are already a yearly challenge for Lebanon, will also increase. These gradually worsening climate pressures and the regulatory difficulties discussed below explain why the annual available freshwater resources per person decreased from 1,400 cubic meters 30 years ago to 600 cubic meters today — with 1,000 cubic meters considered the threshold for water stress.
  
  Besides ravaging ecosystems, droughts strain agricultural production and undermine food security. Access to food is already under threat for millions of Lebanese as the country is a net food importer, purchasing almost 100% of critical products like rice, vegetable oil, refined sugar, and over 80% of its cereals abroad. Regarding grain imports, 80% and 16% are imported from Ukraine and Russia, respectively, exposing Lebanon's high vulnerability to global upheavals like the current Russo-Ukrainian war. By 2030, the Lebanese agricultural sector is expected to lose nearly 50% of the value it had in 2010 — especially as one of the regions most affected by water scarcity will be the Bekaa Valley, the country's leading agricultural center. This problem will increase as agricultural production declines, leading to rising food prices and fewer jobs. The burden is falling on rural and lower-income families in particular, as they are most often employed in agricultural work and rely primarily on local production for their food intake. Lower-income families also spend a relatively higher share of their earnings on food, so rising food prices disproportionately affect them. Notably, lower-income households include many of the estimated 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, of whom approximately 40% live in the poorer Bekaa Valley and are hit particularly hard by the economic situation.
  
  Water resources also suffer from years of unsustainable and inefficient use. Private citizens, agriculture, and industries use ground and surface waters in most regions of Lebanon. In addition to the known overexploitation practices, households, farmers, and companies have dug over 60,000 unregulated private wells across the country to compensate for the insufficiency of public utilities. The Lebanese government has also fallen behind in investments needed to improve the aging water infrastructure's efficiency and fix the system's many leakages.
  
  Moreover, years of unregulated dumping of waste and pollutants from households, agriculture, and industry have contaminated Lebanon's rivers. An example is the Litani River, where, last year, the heavily polluted water caused 40 tons of dead fish to wash up on the shore of Qaraoun Lake. Carcinogenic pollutants and heavy metals can be found in the water and soil and across the food chain, and 90% of wastewater remains untreated and flows directly into Lebanon's main rivers and the Mediterranean Sea.
  
  Several UN agencies, including USAID and UNICEF, have put up measures to cushion the people of Lebanon from the devastating impact of the water shortage. Their programs are designed to improve water services by building the capacity of the four regional water authorities so that they can adequately manage this resource and ensure that Lebanese citizens have access to safe, reliable, and affordable water. Additionally, the programs are designed to address the problem of pollution, raise user awareness, and reverse the depletion of limited water resources.
  
  The water crisis in Lebanon is a complex and multifaceted challenge that requires a comprehensive and long-term vision. It is also an opportunity to transform the water sector and make it more resilient, equitable, and sustainable. By addressing the water crisis, Lebanon can also improve its social, economic, and environmental situation and contribute to the peace and stability of the region.