The dam after its demolition, allowing water to flow once more through the river. (Credit: Kfar Matta Municipality)
In Lebanon, where one environmental scandal follows another, the creativity of some offenders can still deliver a surprise. For several weeks, landowners along the Damour River in Chouf, more specifically from Bsatin to Damour, were unpleasantly surprised at the fact that the river water gradually stopped reaching them.
“We could no longer irrigate our land,” Ramzi Ghanam, a landowner, told L’Orient-Le Jour.
Why? Because of a barrier built by a landowner in Kfar Matta which, according to Ghanam, completely diverted the course of the water, denying all the land upstream of irrigation.
“This barrier is totally illegal and was built on public river land. Its damage to the area’s farms and the environment is considerable,” he said.
The potential damage prompted Chouf MP Najat Aoun Saliba to denounce what happened in the media. “This river is a sanctuary for biodiversity and is classified as a zone of great environmental importance. It is highly prized for its tourist and agricultural importance,” she told L’Orient-Le Jour.
Like Ghanam, she condemned the fact that the municipality of Kfar Matta granted a permit to the landowner who made the construction. “Building a barrier on a river is not within the prerogative of municipalities, but of the Energy and Water Ministry,” she added. She pointed out that she had sent a missive to the ministry, as well as that of the environment.
No permit?
The lobbying and media campaign has had an immediate effect. The Energy Ministry ordered the demolition of the barrier on Wednesday, after being notified by MP Farid Boustany, also from the district, a source at the ministry told L’Orient-Le Jour.
This was confirmed by Ghanam, who said the Internal Security Forces asked him on Wednesday to accompany them to the site.
“The barrier was completely demolished in my presence and that of two other elected officials from Bshtfin and Deir Koushe,” Nazir Khaddage, mayor of Kfar Matta, told our newspaper.
While he admitted that he “granted this landowner a land reclamation permit, without knowing what would follow,” he formally denied having issued any authorization to build a barrier, or having known about such works in the area. “I was alerted by the unfounded accusations made against me in the media,” he said. “This barrier was built in a very remote area, and we had to walk a long way to get there.”
The person responsible for the property and who made this breach of the law is believed to be a Syrian national, M.A.R., according to MP Aoun Saliba and Ghanam, who have no further details about him.
L’Orient-Le Jour tried to speak to the offender, but to no avail.
This information was confirmed by the mayor of Kfar Matta, who added that “the land is in the name of his daughter, who is married to a Lebanese man and who was naturalized.”
He does, however, find mitigating circumstances, believing that other people are pumping water from the river. On the point of building a barrier? “Nothing justifies any illegal acts and we won’t tolerate them,” he said.
For once, this latest environmental scandal seems to have been resolved by the authorities with lightning speed.
