In the dark nights of Lebanon, hydroelectric plants are sorely missed. Small production units powered by hydraulic energy illuminated most regions since the mandate era, withstanding the days of war but succumbing during a time of corruption. The Rashmiya plant is one of these sixteen plants, standing today in the Aley district as a witness to the mismanagement of water and electricity resources in a country where its leaders have invested its exceptional wealth to serve their personal interests, either out of ignorance or awareness.
For three and a half years, the "heart" of the Rashmiya plant has completely stopped "beating" after a bright journey that lasted since 1932. The cut of its "vein" had been preceded by "clots" over the years that reduced water flow in its vessels and deprived its "turbines" of the necessary pressure to operate efficiently. The interruption of the main supply line extending from Lake Kfrenis in 2019 came to "decide a matter that was already in effect," transforming the plant into a "winter plant," operating for a maximum of four months a year.
The Rashmiya plant supplied electricity to about half of the Aley district and a large part of the Chouf district almost continuously during the 1970s and 1980s. This was achieved due to two main factors: its increased production capacity to about 13.2 megawatts after the addition of a third production unit in 1966 to the two original units established in 1932 during the French mandate, and the abundant water flow from the Safa and Qaa springs, collected in Lake Kfrenis, which was specially dug to ensure sufficient water pressure for the plant.
**Water Scarcity**
Upon returning to manage the plant after interruptions caused by the civil war, Engineer Dawood Khoury, the plant's director from 1985 to 2001, noticed water scarcity resulting from the diversion of a significant portion for irrigation and drinking due to governmental decrees. He was able, in coordination with the then-Minister of Energy, the late Elie Habika, and his team, to halt the excessive extraction of water from the plant and maintain the minimum necessary for its operation. The plant produced electricity for about five months in the winter with a capacity reaching approximately 10 megawatts, constituting about 70% of its maximum production capacity, gradually declining to a complete halt in September each year until January, according to Engineer Khoury.
Things remained this way until 2001 when the Barouk Water Authority took a six-inch pipe from the Safa spring, and "the water was cut off from the plant from June to January, for more than eight months," says Engineer Khoury. This reduced the electricity supply duration to about five months a year until 2019, when soil erosion in the village of Kfrenis caused a rupture in the main pipe, halting plant operations entirely until the damage could be repaired.
**Broken Promises**
Attempts to repair the damage and enjoy the electricity of the plant for five months a year instead of being in the dark of thermal plants have failed. "The company tasked with reconnecting the pipe and rehabilitating its bases opted to weld it instead of cutting and coupling it together in the same way it was originally designed by the French," says the mayor of Kfrenis, Dr. Suleiman Labess, "an approach that the current plant manager rejected since any explosion of the pipe could threaten the town of Ramlieh below it with flooding and cause severe damage." Labess reports that Engineer Fadi Bou Khzam, head of the Hydroelectric and Renewable Energy Department at Electricité du Liban, contacted them, promising to bring in a foreign company to ensure the repair of the line and the necessary maintenance. However, until now, no one has arrived, despite the preparation of the access road to the water pipe at the damage site.
**It Will Not Return to Its Former Glory**
Repairing the damage is important, but it "will not restore the plant to its former glory," confirms Engineer Dawood Khoury. "The main problem today is the scarcity of water and its insufficiency to operate the plant year-round after the majority has been diverted for agricultural usage and to homes." It is known that the water intake from the Safa spring (prise 2) flows through an air canal for 500 meters into a tunnel resembling a "horseshoe" stretching 6 km to reach Lake Kfrenis, from where water flows through pipes to the Rashmiya plant; this right is exclusive to the plant for electricity generation, with no rights for any other party. Meanwhile, the Qaa spring historically feeds the regions, and there was a pipeline that took "water from the Safa spring to the Beit ed-Din palace during the time of Emir Bashir al-Shihabi. Recently, a branch was taken to the Kharoub region and to Aley, drawing from the Safa spring until the water entirely dried up in the summer for the Rashmiya electricity plant," says Khoury.
If the damage is repaired and its turbines maintained, the plant will only supply 15 neighboring villages for no more than five months. According to Khoury, electricity production from the plant will be limited to the first four months of winter. It is impossible to transfer water back to it after it was redirected to agricultural projects and reached homes in various villages of Chouf, Aley, and all the way to the Kharoub region.
Between the preference for citizens' right to water and their right to electricity, the issue remains the same: mismanagement has cost them electricity. The philosophy underlying the theory of seizing the Rashmiya plant's water was based on the belief that hydroelectric plants were unnecessary in light of the expansion of thermal plants beginning in the year 2000. According to Khoury, the intention was to eliminate the plant altogether and seize all the water feeding it for use. Consequently, the abundant water from springs and rainfall became almost worthless due to failures in planning and execution, leaving neither enough water to satisfy the region nor electricity to be secured.
With the exception of the three hydroelectric plants on the Litani River—Markaba, El-Ola, and Joun—they produce about 90% of the electricity sourced from hydraulic power, most plants have become a romantic memory recalled by Lebanese whenever their electricity crisis deepens.
