Lebanese Villages Still Without Water after Conflict

Daily life continues to be an uphill struggle for residents in many of Lebanon's villages as they remain without water three months after the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict ended in ceasefire.

Most villagers are still dependent on water being trucked in or are forced to use the unpurified water brought up from artesian wells for basic tasks like cooking, bathing and flushing away human waste.

The villages hardest hit by the conflict in southern Lebanon are also those struggling the most to get water flowing again, according to a report by Action by Churches (ACT) International, just one of a number of NGOs currently focussing their work on water provision in the southern region.

"Some places are really badly damaged," said Hans Bergman, project coordinator for Church World Service partner Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) in Lebanon. Busted water pipes have to be repaired, if possible, or re-laid and fitted all over again, he said.

Bergman's water and sanitation team is working in collaboration with the Inter-Church Network for Development and Relief in Lebanon (ICNDR), the humanitarian-relief arm of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC). Church World Service, NCA, and MECC are members of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International.

The effort is providing 15 generators, costing about US$282,000. They are also distributing 10,250 hygiene kits costing about US$205,000, and providing other general services such as emptying septic tanks and purifying water, at a cost of around US$97,000.

"Water, certainly, means life," said Ghayth Maalouf, ICNDR's regional coordinator assigned to one of the two divisions of South Lebanon that includes Marjeyoun and Bint Jbeil.

According to Maalouf, 90 per cent of the villages no longer had access to their main sources of water after the conflict.

Re-establishing water supplies "is one of the most important projects," said ICNDR regional coordinator Robert Nicolas, Maalouf's counterpart in the other division of South Lebanon. Nicolas' territory includes Saida and Nabatieh.

The Christian groups are working to replace many of the home water-storage tanks damaged beyond use by the 33-day conflict.

The greatest damage from the conflict was inflicted on Shiite Muslim communities, often Hezbollah strongholds, located along the border between Lebanon and Israel.

NCA and ICNDR have teamed up to distribute a total of 5,000 water-storage tanks costing around US$420,000. The two ministries will repair, lay and fit water pipes in ten conflict-damaged villages, costing around US$118,000, and truck another US$95,000 worth of water into 11 villages.

The efforts of the ministries have been greatly appreciated by local villagers, according to Nicolas. One municipal mayor called just recently and said, "I didn't believe that an NGO could achieve what you have done."