Towards a Human Rights Approach to Water in Lebanon: Implementation beyond ‘Reform (original) (raw)

Water Management in Lebanon: A Confiscated Reform?

2013

The premise of this paper is that there has been a significant shift in the prevailing discourse on water resources in Lebanon over the past century. In contrast to widespread confidence in the country’s abundant water resources at the beginning of the twentieth century, the dominant view today is that there is likely to be a serious water shortage by 2030. This discursive shift contrasts sharply with the legislative and regulatory inertia surrounding water-related laws despite repeated attempts at modernization by successive regimes and authorities (the Ottoman Empire, the French Mandate, and the modern state). Water rights in Lebanon have always been closely linked to land tenure. Today, the appropriation of land and water resources is a major focus of political and economic debate. This paper has two objectives. First, it provides a historical overview of legal and institutional reforms adopted in the water sector. A distinction is made between four main periods: the Ottoman period (Mecelle), the French Mandate period, the post-independence period (1943-1990), and the postwar period (the reconstruction period). Second, the paper shows that there have been constant and intense power struggles between multiple actors seeking to maintain multiple systems of resource appropriation.

Bridging Policy Frameworks to Address New Challenges to Lebanon's Water Management Structure

Lebanon Water Forum, 2019

Lebanon is not able to properly develop, and benefit from its water sources. In the year 2000, a new wave of reforms began with the reorganization of public water institutions with the merging of the existing offices and committees into four Regional Water Establishments (RWEs). The water policy framework in Lebanon is reviewed in the light of the latest international donor conference, and is assessed to analyze its effectiveness in meeting priorities of RWEs and water user need. Twenty years after the launching of the reforms, Lebanon does not seem to entirely meet the priorities of neither the water users' needs nor the managing agencies, and the various policy frameworks seems to have increased institutional duplication and responsibilities fragmentation on the sector.

Challenges of post-war policy reforms in Lebanon's water sector – lessons learned

Water Supply

Lebanon has not been able to properly develop and benefit from its water sources. A confessional system of governance has hindered development of the sector. Laws and regulations have been developed erratically with many superseding others without the superseded laws being erased from the registry. This created a chaotic regulatory and legal environment with overlapping jurisdictions and no clear accountability mechanisms. The period before the onset of the civil war in 1975 witnessed significant progress of both infrastructure and laws and regulations related to the management of the water sector. The civil war destroyed the water sector infrastructure and emptied all regulatory control of the resources. The period of reconstruction between 1990 and 1999 witnessed the promulgation of ambitious reconstruction plans for the water sector with funding reliant on borrowing from local and external debtors. Post 1999, government reforms started creeping into the system but were often dono...

Water Crisis and Water Management Strategies in the Syrian Refugee Settlements in Lebanon

Jurnal Tambora, 2022

Water scarcity is an urgent issue in the Middle East, and rapid population growth caused by the refugee crisis impose further demand on the water supply in the country. This research was carried out in order to portray the water crisis in Lebanon analyzing the water governance policies that have been implemented by the Lebanese government, especially after the Syrian refugee crisis. The aim of this case study is to describe the main reasons behind the water scarcity in Lebanon nowadays, besides analyzing the water governance strategies implemented by the Lebanese government and other international organizations to address this crisis within the context of the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon. Findings indicate that several actions must be done to minimize water stress in Lebanon if a political settlement in Syria is established and refugees begin to return to Syria. However, even if Syrian refugees return home and Lebanon's population declines, water scarcity will remain an issue that must be addressed. These long-term plans include agricultural water-use reform and, eventually, government water-sector reform.

Water as a human right: The understanding of water in Palestine

2004

The following paper does not necessarily represent the views of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Throughout the Middle East, there is a gap between water supply and water demand. In Palestine, this gap is growing with time because water supply is artificially constrained. This gap is having severe adverse effects on both current and future Palestinian socioeconomic development. Water is essential to human life-for basic health and survival, as well as food production and economic activities. Yet Palestine is presently facing a national emergency in that there is a lack of access to a basic supply of clean water and access to adequate sanitation, the primary cause of diseases linked to water-as well as a potential source of contamination to the water resources themselves. This study presents the current situation in the water sector in Palestine, along with the water sector policy and strategy, and existing legislation. The criteria for the Human Right to Water are then considered. It is concluded that closing the water gap in Palestine will be totally dependent on the development option and on that action plan that is best able to be implemented in the current political and economic situation.

Water as a Human Right in the MENA Region: Challenges and Opportunities

Even though hundreds of millions of people do not have access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation, these issues only entered the global political agenda around the mid-1970s. The period 1981 –90 was declared as the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade, with the objective that everyone would have access to clean water and sanitation by its end. The Decade did not meet its objective. The issue was then chosen as a Millennium Development Goal, with the objective that by 2015 the number of people not having access to clean water can be reduced by half. By 2002, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations reinterpreted Articles 11 and 12 of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and concluded that water is a human right under this agreement. Several governments have opposed the concept that new rights can be derived by reinterpreting existing treaties. The paper analyses the developments leading to the recommendation that water is a human right, and then assesses the implications of this new development and its implementation potential in the developing world, especially for the Middle East and North African region. It identifies seven priority areas where research is now needed.

Physical and Anthropogenic Challenges of Water Resources in Lebanon

Challenges of water resources in Lebanon are well pronounced. Even though sufficient water resources exist and high precipitation is often recorded, Lebanon's water is threatened by several physical and anthropogenic challenges that make it a country under water stress. This issue has been exacerbated in the last few decades. There are several studies, projects and even donations to enhance the status of water resources in Lebanon, but no remarkable progress has been achieved yet. This is attributed, in a broad sense, to unidentified figure of the hydrologic cycle accompanied with the lack of sufficient data and information upon which strategies and policies can be built for better management approaches. This study highlights the key issues of water problem in Lebanon including the existing challenges and their impacts. The existing challenges are not well understood by the decision makers, and often water shortage is attributed to undefined reasons. The approach in this study followed a number of indicative elements for data and information analysis. It utilized available records and time series, new techniques of remote sensing, as well as diagnosed previous studies and projects by the author. It introduces a clear understanding of the problematic issues of water resources in Lebanon, and then proposed the most applicable solutions for better stable water balance.

Ensuring Water Security in the Middle East: Policy Implications

Euromesco, 2020

Over the last decades, desertification and water-scarcity have become major problems in the Middle East, and more specifically in the Eastern Mediterranean region (Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Syria). These developments have had significant political and socioeconomic impacts for the region. Increasingly securitized, water has been transformed into a political card, discouraging inter-state cooperation. Securitization of water has also led to exclusion of civil society and non-governmental actors from resource management. This Joint Policy Study discusses securitisation and de-securitisation trends in the region and examines the policies that can ensure water security. It argues that multilateral cooperation can trigger effective cooperation over shared water resources. Furthermore, civil society should be reincorporated into management and monitoring of water resources, which would lead to gradual desecuritisation of this resource. The study is composed of four chapters. The first one, written by Dr. Christiane Fröhlich clarifies the concepts of water securitisation and de-securitisation, focusing on the Jordan basin as a case study, and specifically the Israeli-Palestinian water conflict. The second chapter, written by Tobias von Lossow and Mahmoud Shatat, examines the water trends in the region, analyzing the impact of water scarcity on local communities and conflicts, with Gaza Strip as a case study. The third chapter, authored by Ali Oguz Dirioz, focuses on the existing and attempted cooperation initiatives over water resources in the Middle East, analyzing the factors behind the success and failures. The last chapter, written by Giulia Giordano and Desirée Quagliarotti, examines the water-energy nexus and its associated risks in the Middle East region.