Solar panels installed in Chmestar in the Bekaa on 9 August 2026. (Credit: Sarah Abdallah/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — A solar-powered drinking water well was inaugurated Sunday in Chmestar, in the Baalbeck-Hermel district. The project, funded by residents of the town, aims to ensure a continuous water supply amid Lebanon’s ongoing economic and electricity crises, L'Orient Today's correspondent in the Bekaa reported.
The inauguration was attended by Baalbeck-Hermel parliamentary bloc head MP Hussein Hajj Hassan, Amal Movement’s regional leadership member Ali Kayyal, a representative of the director general of the Bekaa Water Establishment, Assem Saqr, and Chmestar municipality head Souheil Hajj Hassan.
Speaking to L’Orient Today, the municipality head said the town receives only two or three hours of public electricity per day, significantly disrupting its water supply. Residents pooled funds to raise the $75,000 needed for the project. The new well supplies residents along two “main streets” in the town. He said seven wells would be needed to make the town self-sufficient in water and added that two more similar projects are planned.
Speaking at the inauguration, MP and former minister Hussein Hajj Hassan warned that Lebanon’s continued financial difficulties, amid a severe economic crisis since 2019 and near-continuous war since Oct. 8, 2023, could lead to the collapse of the Bekaa Water Establishment.
Assem Saqr presented the Chmestar project as an example of residents contributing to public infrastructure, particularly through the use of solar energy to operate water facilities. The town of Chmestar has been repeatedly bombarded by Israel.
Reporting contributed by our correspondent in the Bekaa, Sarah Abdallah.
