05 August 2009

SIDON: The municipality of Sidon held an urgent meeting on Monday to discuss the coastal city's pressing water crisis. Sidon's Mayor Abdel-Rahman al-Bizri presided over the meeting attended by the head of the South Lebanon Water Authority Ahmad Nizam as well as the head of Electricit du Liban, Ahmad Abdel-Hadi.

Bizri said that the Sidon municipality presented the water company with a primary donation of LL 20 million for energy supply. The Minister of Water Resources and EnergyAlain Tabourian is to decide the remaining amount of the donation, according to the mayor.

"Lebanon's water and electricity sectors suffer from poor management and the consequences are showing now," Bizri said, adding that the public interest of Sidon "does not need political consensus."

"The Sidon municipality has decided to take action while stressing that some public interests need to be urgently tackled rather than lengthily discussed," he added.

The southern port city has been facing severe water shortages since the beginning of the summer season due to power rationing and high gas prices.

"The situation is unbearable," Bizri complained to reporters. "We don't want Sidon to always pay the price. We want the city to be equal to other Lebanese regions," he added.

The mayor also predicted that the problem will spread wider than the city's borders, adding that Lebanon was in "dire need of central reforms."

The urgent municipality meeting suggested linking water canals to four primary stations to insure a 24 hour flow of water and presented the South Lebanon Water Authority with a donation to purchase fuel.

The meeting also stressed the need to adopt "instant measures" to stop wasting water and criticized the lack of communication with emergency institutions such as hospitals and firefighting departments.

Mayor Bizri referred to a recent fire in Sidon, saying that the city's water authorities were "poorly equipped" to handle the situation.

"We understand the conditions of the electricity and water companies but we ask them to multiply their efforts especially that the holy month of Ramadan is around the corner," Bizri added.

South's electricity crisis worsens with power plant problems

SIDON: South Lebanon's water and electricity crisis intensified on Tuesday after technical troubles in the Zahrani power plant led to more power rationing.

Lebanon's electricity company Electricit du Liban (EDL) announced on Tuesday that a malfunction occurred "in the second gas group and boiler of the Zahrani power plant causing shortage in production."

Some residents of the port city of Sidon briefly took to the streets and demanded that politicians take quick action to limit the losses. "The electricity sector has been suffering for years despite the large amounts of money spent to solve the problem" according to resident Farouq Al-Saqa. "Politicians keep making false promises but all we see is more rationing," he said angrily.

The southern city has been witnessing severe water shortages due to a lack of power supply and high fuel prices.

In a bid to remedy the problem, the city's municipality presented the South Lebanon Electricity Authority with a monetary donation on Monday.

Meanwhile, EDL said it sent a warning to the Korean company Kepco that manages the Zahrani power plant. It urged the company to "immediately solve the technical troubles so as to avoid further failures in power supply especially during the summer season." Similar problems were encountered on Friday in the north Lebanon power plant of Deir Ammar, also maintained by Kepco.

Sidon residents called for a quick solution so as not to "spend the hot summer season without electricity nor water." The Korean company, however, said the technical problems in Zahrani could not be fixed before Friday. Mohammed Zaatari

Copyright The Daily Star 2009.