Lebanon faces ‘severe’ water rationing amid fuel crisis

SEVERAL areas of Lebanon face “severe” water rationing because generators and pumps have not been operating for more than a week due to a spiralling fuel crisis.

The country has a bottled water shortage due to pumping, plastic production and distribution problems, prompting supermarkets to ration it and residents to drink boiled tap water.

The Beirut and Mount Lebanon Water Establishment announced it would begin a “severe rationing programme in most of the areas within its jurisdiction” due to diesel shortages.

Without diesel generators, pumps cannot move water to treatment plants and then on to consumers.

Fuel shortages in Lebanon have led to power cuts of up to 23 hours per day and overnight queues for petrol.

The addition of a water crisis is pushing businesses, along with much of the population, to breaking point.

Last month, Unicef warned that 71 per cent of Lebanon could run out of water this summer because of the lack of electricity and fuel.

At the weekend, the UN children’s agency updated its statement to warn that in the “coming days” more than four million people – predominantly vulnerable children and families – could be“forced to resort to unsafe and costly sources of water (and) public health and hygiene will be compromised”.

Lebanon could then experience an increase in waterborne diseases and a surge in Covid-19 cases, it added.