Striking Challenges on Water Resources of Lebanon

Abstract

Lebanon was described as the “water tower of the Middle East,” but the current status is contradictory, and water supply/demand gap has become imbalanced. Even though, water is available, yet water shortage is a major challenge in Lebanon. This is attributed to the undefined hydrological cycle and the lack of sufficient hydrologic data to establish proper strategies and policies. This study investigates the existing physical and anthropogenic challenges and their impact on water resources. Hence, climate change is one major aspect of these challenges where the precipitation patterns have been abruptly changes to torrential rainfall, and this is accompanied with increased temperature estimated at 1.6°C. In addition, the exacerbated population rate (2%) with the doubled number of refugees makes Lebanon a country under water stress. The discharge in rivers and springs has declined by about 60% over the last four decades, while groundwater level has sharply lowered in the major aquifers and the pumping rate has decreased to about 35%. The problem on water resources in Lebanon should be resolved by promoting a national strategy that takes all hydrological components into account, as well as new adaptation measures must be proposed for better water management.