The worst drought of always drains Lebanon: the Qaraoun lake has almost disappeared

The Lebanon It is in the midst of the most serious water crisis ever recorded. An unprecedented drought has almost dried up the Qaraoun lakethe largest artificial basin in the country, powered by Fiume Litani. The diffuse images show an arid expanse, marked by cracks in the earth and dead vegetation: what was once a lake today is little more than a memory.

According to the National Authority of the Litani river, during the last season of the rains they afflicted in the basin just 45 million cubic meters of waterin the face of a historical average of about 350 million. It is the worst dry season never recorded, even superior to that of the years 1989-1991.

“There have been years of drought in 1989, 1990 and 1991, but this year it is the driest,” he said Sami Alawiehhead of the river authority, in an interview with Reuters. “We are facing a problem of scarcity of water in all territories and Lebanese hydrographic basins”.
The lake today contains about 61 million cubic meters of water, but according to the authorities that resource is unusable due to serious pollution. The result is the complete block of the hydroelectric power plants connected to the pelvis, with serious repercussions on the fragile national electrical system.

The crisis also hardly affects agriculture. In the Bekaa valley, a fertile area surrounding the village of Qaraoun, farmers are collapsing. The lack of rainfall and electrical rationing make regular irrigation almost impossible.

“I have never seen an drought or a scarcity of rain like this year,” said Safa Isa, a local farmer. “Before it snowed up to one meter. Now we haven’t seen ten years now.”
“He gets irrigated for three hours, then he stops for more three,” he explained Fayez Omaisalso farmer in the area.
A study conducted by the river authority attributes the main liability to climate change: growing temperatures, increasingly longer dry seasons and an increase in evaporation are reducing the soil ability to retain humidity and prevent the refueling of the aquifers. Lebanon, like other Mediterranean countries, is facing a new climatic normality made of scarcity of water and energy crises.

It is not just the climate, however. The situation is aggravated by years of inadequate management of water resources, excessive withdrawalsinefficient infrastructures and absence of a long -term adaptation plan. For now, the Lebanese authorities are limited to emergency responses. The Ministry of Energy and Water will shortly launch a public campaign to reduce domestic consumption, as the Suzy Hoayek consultant announced: “The most important thing is to manage the question”.

But the scarcity of water does not only concern the houses. Without more structural interventions – from the protection of the slopes to the reduction of losses in water networks – the maneuver margins are quickly reduced. And with them, the country’s ability to guarantee essential services, such as agricultural irrigation and energy production.