Road flooded on Nahr al-Kalb level during winter Jan. 26, 2024. (Credit: Philippe Hage Boutros/L'Orient Today)
Lebanon’s Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar instructed governors to ensure that municipalities, district commissioners, and unions of municipalities "take urgent preventive measures ahead of the autumn and winter seasons," warning that "heavy rains often lead to flooding on roads and obstruct traffic," Hajjar said in a written directive Friday.
In his written directive, Hajjar called for the “immediate rehabilitation of rainwater drainage networks and the removal of all obstacles and violations from winter canals, streams, drainage channels and riverbeds, with waste to be transferred to legal dumpsites.”
He also stressed the need for “direct coordination with the Public Works and Transport Ministry, the Energy and Water Ministry and the Civil Defense Directorate, each within its mandate, when needed.”
Hajjar further instructed authorities to “remove violations and prevent any new encroachments on public river properties, in order to avoid floods or the diversion of water outside natural courses and rivers.”
Waste blocked sewage and drainage systems, especially after heavy rain, cause flooding across Lebanon's coastal areas every year. Weakened by nearly six years of crisis, the country is ill-prepared for winter storms.
