Two weeks have passed with Beirut, the capital, without water. These two weeks have turned the lives of one and a half million people living in Beirut into a nightmare amid harsh economic, social, health, and climatic conditions. During this period, the supply of water trucks has thrived, their roar ever-present in a new area. While waiting for promises to solve the problem after repairing the pipe that carries water from Dhour El Choueir to Beirut, new issues have arisen, with many citizens of the capital blaming the "Free Patriotic Movement" for the situation.
**Warning Sit-in**
Yesterday before noon, angry residents began to gather outside the Beirut Water Company in Talet el Khayat in response to a call from Beirut's mukhtars and the Beirut Association Forum, protesting against the water outage that has plagued the capital for nearly two weeks, threatening escalation. One woman stated, "It seems that the officials noticed we weren't getting angry, so they gave the green light to the water mafia to gouge us as well." She pointed out that the cost of a water shipment (10 barrels) starts at a minimum of 500,000 LBP and added that the water was not clean. Another woman insisted that "dollars don't reach everyone from abroad."
Mukhtar Youssef Aitani exclaimed, "Do they want us to dig our own graves and bury ourselves alive?" He indicated that "an employee earning 3 million LBP cannot cover transport costs and has the additional burden of buying water. We still haven't paid for our breath!" Speakers urged officials to intervene immediately, restore water to the capital, put an end to this catastrophe, and reveal those responsible. They noted, "Some intestinal, viral, and skin diseases have begun to spread due to the lack of water," criticizing Beirut MPs for focusing on personal status issues while relegating concerns over water, bread, electricity, healthcare, and public funds to secondary priorities.
In the same context, Mukhtar of Minat al-Hosn, Abdul Rahman Yamout, emphasized the necessity of announcing those responsible for these problems, accusing the officials at the Ministry of Energy and Water.
**Generator Breakdown**
Regarding the reasons behind the problem, sources told "Al-Akhbar" that the initial issue was due to an explosion of the pipe carrying water to Beirut from Dhour El Choueir, which was repaired weeks ago but broke again before being fixed once more. After the protest, a group of Beirut mukhtars and city representatives met with Engineer Ziad Saab at the water company to discuss the problem and reach sustainable solutions. According to the sources, there are other issues like the breakdown of the 1000 Kva generator at the water company. Its maintenance requires, according to the sources, about 2000 dollars at most. "Is it conceivable that the water institution does not have this money?" The sources reject this excuse since "there are 250,000 subscriptions collected from Beirut annually. The minimum reaches two million LBP from each household, and the collection rates reach 90%." However, according to the source, "For the past four years, funds have been diverted to address problems in Kesrouan for political purposes, especially since the company officials are linked to the Free Patriotic Movement."
While it was supposed to substitute the absence of Dhour El Choueir water by the water wells of Damour and Al-Mashroof until the necessary maintenance could be conducted, the power outage at the Damour station, along with the lack of fuel, disrupted this alternative, adding extra burdens on the residents that they can no longer endure.
