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The Damour River Basin is an area that
faces significant water stress issues. Upstream abstraction and discharges
contribute to water shortage and pollution of the river downstream.
Furthermore, the overexploitation of groundwater resources to supply the
Beirut Metropolitan area exacerbate groundwater depletion and sea water
intrusion in coastal aquifers.
The main proposals formulated as a result
of the first stages of stakeholder involvement indicated that there is need
for:
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Supply enhancement and demand
management, especially in irrigated agriculture;
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Improvement of the quality of water
services provided;
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Enabling processes towards
reaching consensus among downstream and upstream users for the
allocation of river water and environmental protection;
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Enhancement of collaboration between
central and local authorities for solving local problems.
Stakeholders that
collaborate with the INECO Lebanon team were subsequently asked to broadly evaluate
instruments in terms of individual preference, applicability taking into
account the local/national context, and relevance to address current and
future water management challenges, as well as the problem at hand.
A total of 70 questionnaires were distributed from February 2008 until
June 2008. Due to the prevailing situation in Lebanon only 32 responses
were received. These were however representative of the different
interest groups in the region (farmers, citizens, hotel owners,
industrialists, local municipal authorities and researchers/experts
working in the field). Results are presented in the spider chart below.
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Screening results were used to subsequently
focus the analysis of alternative approaches to: (a) cost
recovery and cost sharing mechanisms; (b) organization of
the water sector and decentralization; (c) enhanced and
effective application of command-and-control approaches to
the regulation of groundwater abstractions and industrial
discharge, and (d) incentive and voluntary schemes.
The preliminary
conclusions drawn from the outcomes of this, final stage of
Case Study development suggest that:
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An increase of water tariffs applicable to households would be acceptable, provided that: (a) volumetric pricing is widely introduced, (b) the quality of provided water services is significantly ameliorated and (c) the system
operates in a more transparent way. Tariff reforms are
primarily accepted as means to ensure cost recovery and
not as the appropriate (or only) way to provide
incentives for efficient water use.
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Private sector involvement in the provision of water
services is favoured, on the condition that relevant
operations are strictly monitored by public authorities.
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The majority of consulted stakeholders is favourable
towards the introduction of taxes as means of “compensating”
for environmental damage and reinforcing civic
responsibility.
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A significant number of respondents would accept free
trading of water rights by farmers; efficiency
improvements in the sector are not considered a threat
to subsistence agriculture, provided that there is
strong governmental support for the modernization of the
sector, the development of irrigation projects and the
selection of less water-intensive crops.
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