The land on which a Syrian refugee camp is currently being rebuilt, according to the National Litani Office. Screenshot from a video provided by Sarah Abdallah.
The National Litani Office, which manages the basin of Lebanon’s largest river (stretching from the Bekaa Valley to southern Lebanon), denounced on Sunday in a statement the “reconstruction work of a Syrian refugee camp in the village of Bar Elias [Bekaa], on the river course.”
In previous years, the Litani Office had dismantled a large number of informal Syrian refugee camps along the river due to their catastrophic ecological impact on the waterway. This site appears to be one of those previously dismantled. Lebanon officially hosts 1.5 million Syrian refugees since the start of the war in 2011. Following the regime change in Damascus in December 2024, several thousand have already returned.
“Building this camp in an ecologically sensitive area represents a direct threat to water resources and constitutes a violation of the Water Code 192/2020 and the Environmental Code 444/2002, particularly in the absence of wastewater infrastructure,” the statement continued.
The Litani Office requested that the construction work be stopped immediately, at least to ensure that environmental and health conditions are respected under the guidance of the relevant ministries.
“The conditions in Syria now allow for a safe and dignified return; there is no longer any justification for erecting new Syrian refugee camps,” the statement said.
The Litani Office also held the landowner responsible for any violations or environmental damage on the site, the statement concluded.
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