A man carrying empty water gallons in Beirut, Lebanon. (Credit: AFP file)
BEIRUT — Several members of parliament announced Thursday that they had given money to repair the broken-down diesel generator that operates Beirut's Burj Abi Haidar water station. A diesel shortage to the generator caused water cutoffs in Beirut and Mount Lebanon in recent days.
Such shortages are no stranger to Lebanon, reeling from a deepening economic collapse. Diesel generators are normally used as backup power for water stations amid blackouts of state-provided electricity.
MP Waddah Sadek (Forces of Change/Beirut II) tweeted Thursday that "many MPs in Beirut have donated [money] to repair" the generator. "In the absence of executive power and in view of the neglect toward Beirut, we are obliged to fulfill this role in order to solve these fundamental problems," he wrote.
Sadek told L'Orient-Le Jour that the generator has not been working for about three weeks and repairing it requires a sum of around $7,000.
"The repair operation has begun," he said, adding that other Beirut II MPs such as Amin Sherri (Hezbollah), Nabil Badr (Independent) and Mohamed Khawaja (Amal) have contributed to the repair. "The Water Establishment could not repair it. And if they were given the money collected [directly], they would have taken it" without carrying out repairs, MP Sadek told L'Orient-Le Jour. The MPs reportedly paid the money directly to those who repaired the generator.
'We had to act'
For his part, MP Mohammad Khawaja said that the repair in question "is lengthy and should take a week" at least. "It was urgent, we had to act," he added.
The Beirut and Mount Lebanon Water Establishment, often rife with breakdowns and electricity cuts, has not released a statement thus far.
An employee of the authority's Tallet al-Khayat office, to which the Burj Abi Haidar station belongs, confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour that the generator is indeed broken down. However, he was not able to verify whether it was the MPs who financed its repair.
Lebanon's major cities are often subject to water cuts that can last for days. Suppliers often blame the cuts on a lack of electricity and resources, as well as poor working conditions and stolen equipment.