The dirty waters of the Litani river, in South Lebanon. Photo Danielle Khayat
For over a year now, the Litani river pollution issue has been dealt with increasingly - at least in appearance - in a context of scandals. A budget has even been allocated by the government for this purpose, but to no avail. Despite the shutdown of illegal industries, big announcements of clean-up projects and cleaning of the river, the pollution remains alarming. Given the situation, Kamal Slim, researcher at the National Council of Scientific Research and Litani specialist, states that " the river waters are now nothing but wastewater, whether they be household or industrial ".
As for Sami Alaouiyeh, director of the Litani Water Board, in office since March 2018, he has a more tempered record of recent months. "There has been progress, but not up to the expectations of the Lebanese people and the scale of the environmental disaster," he tells L'Orient-Le Jour. He then proceeds to give a list of sanitation stations and sewage systems under construction or in the form of projects funded by the Development and Reconstruction Board (independently from the 1,100 billion LP budget released by the government): two main stations in Marj - a project, which was to begin in October, that was delayed - and Tamnine - the construction of which is blocked by the expropriation of a single building. An already existing station in Ia’at, but that must be renovated to be functional again. All of Tamnine's sewer systems are also unfinished, and constantly delayed. The Baalbeck networks are expected to be completed by August 2019, while those in Zahleh should have been done in October, which was not the case. At the upper basin level, construction of the Anjar and Majdel Anjar stations is expected to begin early 2019. The sewer network meant to be linked to the Jeb Jannine and Saghbine stations will supposedly require thirty months starting February 2019, and the networks intended to be connected to the station of Aittanit will be completed during 2019.
In other words, a multitude of projects, delays, stations not connected to sewers ... "For these projects, the budget does exist. But can we finance their functioning in the long term? Will the Bekaa Water office be able to take over? I doubt it given the current context”, says Alaouiyé.
Of the 1,100 billion Lebanese pounds budget allocated by the State to the cleaning of the river for the next 7 years, only 3 billion should reach the Litani office. This part of the budget intended for the first two years of 2017-2018 has in fact not yet reached the institution, according to its director. So far, 57 billion pounds have been used for auctions by the Ministry of Energy in the lower basin, according to him. And a 55 million USD loan was allocated by the World Bank and other donors to the Litani office and relevant ministries, also for projects destined to clean up the river.
"Easy to determine the sources of pollution"
Aqs for the industrial sewers issue, a 2012 law stipulates that each plant must have its own treatment station, adapted to its needs and waste. Alaouiyeh regrets that a former Minister of the Environment granted two-year delays to factory owners - from 2018 to 2020 -, therefore giving them more time to comply, "which precipitated a total degradation of the water quality of the river" .
No wonder, in these conditions, that the river pollution has reached such levels. "The quality of the water is such that it becomes complicated for irrigation, infested with heavy metals and germs," Kamal Slim explains. When asked about the cleaning of the river, he says that "all efforts will be useless until the pollution sources themselves are dealt with, and the treatment plants functional and properly connected to sewage systems". Nevertheless, despite all the big announcements about punishing the culprit factories, "these continue to throw their sewage massively in the river. Some even placed treatment stations just for appearances".
The expert also states that it is quite easy to precisely determine which are the sources of pollution, and explains that a 160-page study carried out at the request of the Litani office has already given all the necessary information.
What about the pollution itself? Can it still be treated ? "The high concentration of pollutants is found in sediments," says Kamal Slim. When the cleansing of the river can truly begin, it will be crucial to treat this phenomenon section by section, knowing that there are many tributaries to the Litani river. The expert pays particular attention to the Qaraoun lake, where all this pollution is pouring in, and which, in this dry year, is experiencing one of its lowest levels (33 million cubic meters against the 220 million that could usually be expected). This lake is however very heavily polluted by toxins coming from the family of cyanobacteria, a very harmful bacteria called “blue algae” although they have nothing to do with actual algae.
"Laws are not enforced"
The scientist is very worried about the extent of the waste in resources that this issue involves. Asked about the delay in making this problem a priority, while the whole region lives a real environmental disaster, Sami Alaouiyeh does not mince his words: "The laws have never really been applied and enforced in the first place”.
Today, as part of its limited prerogatives, the Litani river office has filed a lawsuit against 251 industries: after a thorough investigation, it has been effectively determined that 82 are polluting. "Of the 82 industries against which we have complained, about forty have begun to comply with the required standards," says Alaouiyeh. The Financial Attorney General is currently summoning them one by one to interrogate them about the impact of their pollution on the river. We have also complained against some municipalities, and justice is making them divert their sewers from the river. We offer them a simple solution : building a system of basins to collect wastewater, which will then be purified with reeds. As for municipalities that use septic tanks, we have asked them to keep them until they are fully connected to the official network. "
(The original French version of this article was first published in L'Orient-Le Jour on November the 2nd)
