The Électricité du Liban headquarters in Beirut. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today/File photo)
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The preliminary draft 2023 budget “is ready and must be sent by the end of June” to Parliament, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said yesterday after MPs approved two bills providing lines of credit to pay public employees. The bills passed despite a boycott by the Forces of Change bloc, the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb, who oppose legislative sessions amid the presidential vacuum. The two bills provide between over $400 and $430 million (according to the parallel market and Sayrafa rates, respectively) “temporary compensation for all civil servants and pensioners in receipt of a pension,” bonus payments and transportation allowances for teachers. The spending will be accounted for in this year’s budget, which should have been approved by the end of January. Mikati said the cabinet would hold “successive meetings” to ensure the preliminary draft budget is approved and sent to legislators by the end of this month.
Transocean Barents, the vessel commissioned for oil and gas exploration in the Lebanese offshore Block 9, is expected to arrive in August, the state-run National News Agency reported. The date was given after a meeting between Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and TotalEnergies EP Liban Managing Director Romain de la Martinière. On June 15, French energy company TotalEnergies — which is one-third of a consortium with Block 9 drilling rights, alongside the Italian Eni and the Qatari state-owned QatarEnergy — concluded a call for the public to review a report assessing the environmental impact of oil and gas exploration in Block 9. The conclusion of indirect negotiations in October between Lebanon and Israel to delineate shared maritime borders paved the way for exploration in the offshore field.
“The regions of the Metn, Achrafieh and Burj Abi Haydar will gradually receive water,” a source at the Beirut and Mount Lebanon Water Establishment told L’Orient Today after an electricity issue last week caused ongoing interruption to the water supply. “We cannot provide it all at once because we need to gradually fill our pipelines, which are currently completely empty,” the source continued. Last Wednesday, Electricité du Liban reported that a “major breakdown occurred in one of the transformers at the Zouk power plant” which the EBML source related to issues with “the pumping stations in Mechref, Naame, Damour, Jeita and Dbayeh.” Electricity issues, mainly due to fuel shortages, have previously caused interruptions to the water supply.
Électricité du Liban employees extended their strike until Friday, adding an additional week to their protest demanding improved compensation and healthcare coverage. The employees decried inaction towards improving their salaries and their demands for EDL to contract with another, more advantageous insurer. EDL employees, along with other public sector workers, regularly protest the deterioration of their salaries and their working conditions.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “Ramzi Choueiri: A tribute to Lebanon’s iconic, record-breaking chef”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz