29 October 2011
JEITA, Lebanon: As one of Lebanon’s most famous natural attractions, Jeita Grotto draws tens of thousands of visitors each year, but all that traffic has taken a toll on the narrow road to the site, leaving it pockmarked, cracked and covered in loose rocks.
The public works and transport minister is promising to take swift action to improve the road, with work set to begin Monday, just as the official campaign for Jeita to be named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World reaches its peak.
“We are responsible for this road and we will pave it,” Ghazi Aridi told The Daily Star. “Ministry personnel will examine the area Monday.
“If the weather helps us, we will finish it very soon or else work will be completed in spring,” he added.
The roughly 2-kilometer road that visitors take after exiting the main highway is covered with deep cracks and lacks guardrails despite running high above the valley carved out by the Nahr al-Kalb river.
As they wait for clients in a parking lot near the grotto, taxi drivers voiced their frustration with the road.
“The road does not encourage tourists [to come]. It certainly needs to be improved,” said Walid Rhaimi.
“The comment we hear most from people is about the absence of a guardrail to prevent cars from falling [into the valley],” he said. “We hope that the road will be repaired.”
“Some tourists urge me not to take the road above the valley, fearing that the car will drive over [the side],” said Antoine Baroud, a taxi driver who hails from Jeita. “Jeita is an international tourist destination … it should have a decent road with sidewalks, flowers and lights.”
Repairing the stretch is a necessity, according to visitor Nayla Khoury, who is Lebanese but has been living in Geneva for 24 years. “Especially since they’re asking us to vote for the grotto.
“Trees should be planted on the side of the road to prevent cars from falling into the valley,” she added.
Bassam, who works in a restaurant along the road, said it was in desperate need of lighting and sidewalks.
Jeita Grotto, which is 20 kilometers north of Beirut in the qada of Kesrouan, is one of 28 finalists in a global competition to name the “New 7 Wonders of Nature,” chosen by the public from 261 natural landmarks across the globe.
A telethon will be held Sunday in a bid to drum up support for the grotto whose chambers are filled with spectacular limestone formations. Nov. 11 is the final day to vote.
Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud flew to Argentina Thursday to urge Argentineans, some of whom are of Lebanese origin, to vote for the grotto, in return for Lebanese voting for the Iguazo Falls, which is shared by Argentina and Brazil.
The minister will travel to Brazil as well on Nov. 2 for the same purpose.
Last week, President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Abboud visited the grotto to urge Lebanese at home and abroad to cast their votes. During the visit, Sleiman remarked on the need for road repair and promised to help the Jeita municipality boost its revenues in order to improve the road to the grotto.
Samir Baroud, Jeita’s mayor, said that the municipality is not prepared to repave the road as it receives only 5 percent of every entrance fee.
“The municipality gets only around LL300 for each person [who visits the grotto] … we are not ready to revamp the road with this amount at all.
“In all places throughout Lebanon, the municipality receives half the entrance fee for a tourist site,” he said.
MAPAS, a private company owned by Nabil Haddad that has managed the grotto since 1993, charges each visitor a little more than LL18,000, though only LL7,000 of that is considered the entrance fee, with the rest for additional activities such as the teleferique along with fees.
“Can’t [Haddad] allocate $200,000 or $300,000 to pave the road?” Baroud asked, estimating that the job would cost approximately $240,000. The mayor said the municipality’s revenues were LL600 million per year.
“We told the government ‘give us our rights and we will make this road [like] Champs-Elyssees in Paris,’” he said. “But given the current situation, it’s better to spend the LL300 on serving the residents of the village.”
Baroud noted however that during his visit, Sleiman had promised that the state would be giving Jeita’s municipality 50 percent of the fee that the government receives from the company to help improve the road, highlighting his “seriousness” in making additional funds available.
But Haddad told The Daily Star that giving the municipality 50 percent of the entrance fee, which Baroud is demanding, would be illegal.
“Parliament passed a law in 1971 stipulating that the share of Jeita’s municipality from entrance fees into the grotto is 5 percent,” he said.
He explained that the Shura Council had issued a decision as well, stipulating that Jeita’s municipality has no right to demand additional compensation.
“They take 5 percent in return for offering services, but all they’re doing is giving us problems,” Haddad said.
Haddad said MAPAS has no authority to pave the road leading to the site, noting this was the responsibility of the Public Works and Transport Ministry.
He also said that the government was already deducting around 30 percent of the company’s total income, adding that this percentage would increase in the future based on the contract.
“I have to also pay salaries, along with fees for the National Social Security Fund, lighting and maintenance,” he added.
For his part, Kesrouan MP Neamatallah Abi Nasr said that the Public Works Ministry was responsible for paving the road, but added “the municipality, the [Kesrouan] Union of Municipalities, the transport and public works minister, the interior minister and the entire Cabinet should be asked about this matter.”
“I’m an MP whose role is to legislate, hold the government accountable and seek a vote of confidence in it. I’ve been asking the government about this matter for a long time,” he said.
The lawmaker said that funds for road improvement, which used to be provided by the government directly to MPs, ended in 2005.
“This is better – is it my job to know which road needs to be paved?” he asked, adding that the yearly allocation amounted to around $66,000, which he said was not enough to pave the road in the first place.
Copyright The Daily Star 2011.
