Artesian water wells in Lebanon

"The land of Lebanon is full of holes," the Minister of Energy and Water Gebran Bassil said in reference to the high number of artesian water wells in Lebanon. The minister recently decided not to grant new licenses as the sector waits to be regulated (the minister cancelled the decision on Thursday, September 16) but this does not cancel the presence of tens of thousands of artesian water wells that pull out ground water for various purposes. Drilling such wells has become a profitable investment for those who pay the state low sums of money and then sell the water for high prices.

Water law

Water exploration laws are old and date back to the French era. Decree # 144/S of June 10, 1925 issued by General Serai "the high commissioner of the French republic in the states of Syria, Great Lebanon, the A'alawi nation and the Jabal al-Druze (Druze Mountain)" specifies the nature of public properties as "all things prepared, due to their nature, for everyone's use or for the use of a public utility and they cannot be sold or acquired with time". This definition includes:

-    Waterways of any kind within fixed boundaries at a maximum level before flooding

-    Ground running water and springs of any nature

-    All waterway banks, i.e. any piece of land along the waterways and which can be cleaned and preserved

Lakes and brooks

According to the text of the decree the state or the municipalities grants temporary licenses over its public properties that can be cancelled and for some sort of fee.

Decree # 320 of May 26, 1926 issued by Henry de Jouvenel "French Senate member and high commissioner of the French republic for the states of Syria, Great Lebanon, A'alawi nation and Jabal al-Druze over the preservation and use of public properties' water" states that it is prohibited to carry out the following works without a license by the ministry within the specified condition of Decree 144/S:

-    Prevent public water from flowing freely

-    Any form of trespassing of land borders of temporary or permanent waterway banks, swamps and lakes

-    Works related to exploration for ground water or surface water and controlling it

-    Prohibiting in general any activity, either permanent or temporary, that could affect the quantity of public property water or its flow

Decree #14438 of May 2, 1970 regulated the mechanism of water exploration and use allowing exploration work for underground water or surface water, regulating it or drilling wells before obtaining a license from the Ministry of Energy and Water (then the Minister of Water and Electricity Resources). It set a maximum of LBP 100 for the annual fee deducted from the water exploration license added to it the works fees of these properties and LBP 50 in private properties. It also set the maximum limit for the annual fee for the use of water subject to licensing as follows:

-    Irrigation needs: 0.5 Lebanese cents for every cubic meter

-    For industrial needs and other needs: three Lebanese cents for every cubic meter

The fee was later amended to LBP 500,000 for the exploration license and LBP 100 for every cubic meter in case of irrigation needs and LBP 600 for every cubic meter in case of industrial needs.  Despite raising the value of these fees but they remain low compared to the high revenue that investors obtain. The fee for one liter of water does not exceed 60 Lebanese cents only (one cubic meter of water is equivalent to 1,000 liters of water).

Licensed wells

There is no precise survey on the number of artesian water wells in the Lebanese territories and the amounts of water being extracted daily. The announced figures indicate the presence of around 43,000 wells, of which only 17,590 are licensed and 25,000 are not. The Ministry of Energy and Water receives between 150-200 license applications a month.

If the issue of unlicensed wells needs a greater campaign to control, regulate, and collect fees (such a campaign is difficult and complicated and perhaps reminds of the issue of the violations of maritime properties which remains unresolved) then the supervision of licensed wells is technically not possible due to their high number and presence across the Lebanese territories. Who then watches the meters and the amounts of water being withdrawn? The following Table 1 shows a list of well that have been licensed over the past years.

There are substantial amounts of water in Lebanon that can be invested and that reach 2,300 million cubic meters. However the mismanagement of such great water resource leaves the Lebanese suffering from scarcity of water and lack of its services for domestic use especially during the summer season and forces them to pay a high cost for this water. The drilling of wells by government institutions extracts ground water without providing the necessary need rather it has a high cost due to the drilling, maintenance and operation of the wells. Private companies on the other hand make high profits as a result of investing in the drilling of wells and selling the water for a high cost.

Water resources in Lebanon

Water resources in Lebanon are affected by several factors:

-   Lebanon's location to the east of the Mediterranean

-   The nature of its mountain and coastal topography

Therefore the size of these resources is governed by the quantities of rainfall and snow and what remains of them in the rivers, in the ground and in lakes in addition to what evaporates or gets lost in the sea.

The average rainfall varies from one year to another according to climate factors and to the region. It varies between 660 millimeters and 1,300 millimeters a year while the size of rain is estimated between 8,600 million cubic meters and 9,200 million cubic meters a year, half of which

evaporates. There is approximately 3,000 million cubic meters of ground water of which 1,835 million cubic meters evaporate via springs or flows outside the borders while the rest, 1,165 million cubic meters, are stored. Accessible water that can be invested is estimated at 2,300 million cubic meters and is distributed as follows:

-   820 million cubic meters as water from springs and rivers

-   880 million cubic meters that can be stored using dams. Quantities that can currently be stored do not exceed 250 million cubic meters most of which in the Qaroun and Chabrouh dams while the plan specifies the building of 41 dams across Lebanon

-   Stored water using dams does not exceed 250 million cubic meters

-   600 million cubic meters of ground water that can be invested

Main players

There are four government institutions that work in the water sector:

-   The Ministry of Energy and Water through the directorate general of water and electricity resources, the directorate general for investment and the four water institutions in each of Beirut, Mount Lebanon, the South, the North and the Beqa'a which are in charge of building dams, drilling wells, developing water sources and extending and maintaining networks. The cost of projects in the draft budget of 2009 was LBP 39 billion to provide additional water resources added to that the budgets of the four water institutions. 

-   The Council for Development and Reconstruction with projects at the cost of USD 630 million from 1992 to 2009 focusing mainly on construction and maintenance of potable water networks.

-   Ministry of Agriculture through providing sources and irrigation networks.

-   Municipalities by funding the construction and maintenance of networks within them in addition to drilling, maintaining and equipping boreholes.

Often projects overlap between the four bodies especially between the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) and the Ministry of Energy and Water when one of them executes a project that the other body was planning to implement.

Selling potable water an attractive market

As a result of "doubt" or "certainty" among most the Lebanese over the safety of the potable water that reaches them via water pipes from springs and wells linked to the government water institutions, those with financial capabilities and even those with a limited income buy bottled water, the price of which differs depending on the manner of it is bottled according to the company. However the rising demand for bottled water pushed a number of individuals and companies to enter the water market considering the high profit compared to the low sums of money they pay the state (60 Lebanese cents for the liter). The water is then being sold for more than double that price (400%) (there is of course a high cost for drilling a well, purchasing the means to bottle the water, pumping equipment and the cost of fuel and electricity but all that remain much lower than the selling price). 

Although the Ministry of Energy and Water is the specialized body and the one with the power to license the use of wells for industrial purposes, the Ministry of Public Health-Health Engineering Authority is the body specialized in and with the power to extract potable water and selling it to the public. 

Legislative Decree #108 of September 16, 1983 (to regulate the investment of water and bottled refreshment drinks) specified the characteristics and traits of this water and many other technical conditions.

The following Table 2 shows the license/decrees issued by the Ministry of Public Health for the bottling and sale of potable water in 2006-2007-2008-2009.

المراسيم/ التراخيص التي أصدرتها وزارة الصحة العامة بتعبئة وبيع مياه الشرب خلال الاعوام 2006 - 2009.

جدول 2

مكان البئر أو النبع

كمية المياه المسموح بتعبئتها يومياً/م3

بسكنتا

78

بوارج

86

النبي شيت

88

كفرزبد

86

لحفد

87

شبعا

43

قصرنبا

60

عين دارة

90

يانوح

20

نهر الذهب (كسروان)

81

ماسا (زحلة)

89

الغسانية

88

عبره وشوان (كسروان)

15

الدكوة (البقاع الغربي)

62

القرنة (عكار)

30

اليمونة

86