Law 221 empowers regional water authorities to set and collect water tariffs for domestic and agricultural use. Subscription fees for domestic water supply vary among Water Boards and are determined according to water availability and distribution costs, as distribution by gravity is the cheapest, while distribution by pumping is far more expensive.

Most households undertake additional expenses to meet their water needs. Assuming that households with a 1 m3/day gauge subscription actually receive and consume this amount of water per day, such households would be paying the equivalent of US$ 0.12/m3 to US$ 0.42/m3 of water. In fact, most households end up paying much more on a per cubic meter basis for two main reasons:

• Frequent and periodic water shortages (some areas report receiving water only a few hours per day) and 
• Need to buy water from private haulers, at costs typically around US$5 to US$10 per cubic meter.

In particular, secondary residences pay the full annual water subscription tariff, even though they use the residence only a few weeks or months during the year. In short, as long as water meters are not installed, the price of water will remain unaffected by actual water consumption and people will pay the same amount regardless of the quantity of water actually delivered/ consumed. Users have no incentives to conserve water and waste is much more common.

In the wake of the projected water shortages that Lebanon will face, the MEW has initiated several programs to better manage Lebanon’s water resources through the formulation of a 10-year plan for the period 2000-2009 for water and wastewater management. The proposed plan contains actions that deal with water issues and with electricity infrastructure.

Nearly two-thirds of the budget are allocated for the development of additional water resources (i.e. supply-side measures). Such infrastructure investments aimed at alleviating water shortages by increasing water supply. Synchronized efforts should be made for improving water efficiency (water metering, elimination of illegal connections, introducing on-farm practices for the efficient use of irrigation water), and securing alternative water resources, such as treated wastewater.
On the other hand, and while the government has been advocating private sector participation in many sectors including water, many factors hinder this participation, such as lack of written policies and action plans, an inadequate legal framework and unclear procedures for creating and sustaining public-private partnerships. In the absence of an overall strategy, the Government is pursuing a piecemeal approach, proceeding with a management contract with a private operator in the city of Tripoli and considering other arrangements supported by the World Bank in Baalbeck. As these isolated efforts increase, different donors may encourage different or contradictory approaches. Private sector efforts grow, in part, out of recognition of the weak performance, inadequate staffing, and poor resources of the regional water authorities. These efforts are closely linked to a planned merger of authorities, but a clear and broadly accepted understanding of the operational partnership among the central, regional authorities, and the private operators has yet to emerge and probably is a premature step in the overall process.