Photo: Anaïs Renevier/IRIN. An abandoned farm close to the Syrian border
Source: IRIN
BEIRUT, 23 May 2014 (IRIN) - Michel Achkar-Daoud is getting used to dry
conditions on his farm near the eastern Lebanese town of Zahle, but says
changing weather patterns mean it is probably time to get out of
farming altogether.
Normally, about two thirds of his farm is planted with potatoes. When
the drought started he scrapped those plans in favour of vegetables that
require less water, such as okra, though such vegetables require more
care and fetch far lower prices.
Achkar-Daoud estimates his profits this year, on a farm that at peak
time employs 100 pickers, will be just US$6-7,000 - down from $14,000 in
2013. He says he is ready to sell the land and get out of farming.
The country has been severely affected by drought this winter - with
rainfall less than half the previous year, according to the Lebanese
meteorological authority.
Mohammed Qabbani, an MP who heads the Energy and Water Committee in the
Lebanese parliament, thinks water shortages will be nationwide in the
coming months.
“This year [the effect] is very big and if we have the same conditions
for next year it will be catastrophic. We will start feeling it [the
drought] in July and August and we will have shortages,” he says. “They
will be for the whole of Lebanon.”
A few miles down the road, farmer Mohammed Ma’mo also bemoans the freak
weather conditions that have decimated his produce. He mainly grows
cherries but the dry winter has hit the crop, and the few rains that
have come have been unusually strong - with one freak hailstorm
destroying much of his fruit. Per 20 trees he normally gets 600kg of
goods for sale, but this year he thinks it could be as low as 200kg.
A short-term crisis…
While agricultural production has already been badly hit, the effects of
the drought on the rest of the Lebanese population are likely to be
felt more acutely later in the year.
The fact that the small country is now home to over one million Syrians
fleeing the civil war over the border is likely to make the crisis even
more severe. Dr Hassan El Bushra, head of the World Health Organization
in Lebanon, recently said the lack of clean water meant outbreaks of communicable diseases such as polio and cholera are now “inevitable”.
Qabbani agrees that the potential for a public health crisis is acute.
“We have not seen such a level of rain since 1932 and in that year the
population was less than one million. Now we are four million, [as well
as] more than one million Syrians. They all need to drink,” he adds.
He believes that a series of cutbacks are necessary immediately, with
the primary goal being to minimize consumption. “Any unnecessary use of
water such as washing cars and cleaning the streets should be stopped,”
he said. “They should also consider reducing water for vegetable
cultivation. We could try to eliminate this and import more vegetables.”
This measure, unsurprisingly, has been unpopular with farmers.
…with long-term causes
While the drought is short-term, the country’s inability to utilize its
water resources stretches back decades. Lebanon has the highest amount
of rainfall per capita in the Middle East, with an average of 8 billion
cubic metres a year.
Yet leakage - the water that is lost in the system through broken pipes
and wastage - is so common that up to half of collected water is lost.
Even in good years, residents of major cities face shortages, while Blue
Gold, a new civil society body pushing for reform of the country’s
water networks, estimates that just 17 percent of all the country’s
rainfall is utilized.
As such, short-term measures such as those Qabbani suggests would only
succeed if they were supplemented with longer-term reforms, say
analysts. The Blue Gold scheme,
developed by more than 30 experts over the course of a year and
launched by President Michel Sleiman in December, aims to transform the
country’s water network over the next six years.
In total in involves a new network of dams and developments which would
cost US$5 billion, to be paid for largely by the private sector.
Ziad Sayegh, head of the Civic Influence Hub that launched Blue Gold,
says he is confident of using the current crisis to push for changes.
“Through water we can unify Lebanese people,” he says, pointing out that
the reforms have already been presented to the Lebanese cabinet.
The hope is that while this current water crisis is likely to be bad,
future ones can be reduced with better medium-term planning.
Yet Qabbani notes that the commitment of the political classes to even
dealing with the short-term crisis is limited. He says he has
consistently urged all sides to take fast action to reduce the effects
of the drought but there has been little interest from the new
government. “We need more urgency from all sides,” he says.
This lack of strategic planning has not escaped the attention of the
farmers. Simaan Najjar, who has only a few acres of land that he farms
for cherries and other fruit, thinks the lack of political interest in
sustainability and reducing wastage has made Lebanon more susceptible to
crises.
His son Anthony has emigrated to Germany to work on developing
low-emission cars, an irony that has not escaped him. “In Europe, in
America, they are trying to deal with sustainability, but here there is
nothing.”