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THE WATER AUTHORITIES
The lebanese Water Authorities, whose number
is 21,are semi-autonomous public
institutions having the responsability of the exploitation of both the network
and the equipments for the providing of drinking water, as well as for their
maintenance and their renewal.
The Authorities are placed under the tutelage of the Ministry of Energy
and Water from a technical and administrative point of view, and under the
tutelage of the Ministry of Finance from a financial point of view.
It is the responsability of the Water Authorities to fix the water
price.This price covers the maintenance and renewal costs of the existing
network and equipments, but it does not take into account the initial or future
investment paying -off costs for the extension of the network and the resources.
The Water Authorities are not related with the
administrative cutting-out of the country in "Mohafazat"
(districts) and "Caza" (sub-division of districts):
a same Water Authority can provide drinking water to several Cazas (for
instance, the Water Authority of Barouk provides water to the 2 Cazas of Aley and
the Chouf).
In the same way, the same water resource can be exploited by several
Water Authorities (for instance the water of the Jéïta Cave is exploited by
three Authorities which are those of Beirut, Kesrouane and Metn).
Since the year 2000, the water sector has been reorganized according to
the law 221 (dated 29-5-2000) corrected by
the the Law 241 (dated 7-8-2000), and the law 337 (dated 14-12-2001). The 21 Water Authorities were merged into
"four public establishments for water exploitation", these are:
-The Water Establishment of Beirut and the Mount of Lebanon (head office:Beirut),
-The Water Establishment of North Lebanon (head office:Tripoli),
-The Water Establishment of the Bekaa (head office:Zahleh),
-The Water Establishment of South Lebanon (head office:Sidon).
The former water authorities continue to assure their role as long as the
four new establishments are not operational. Furthermore, the responsibility of the
waste water treatment sector is transferred from the Ministry of Interior to the Ministry of
Energy and Water ; presently; this sector is entrusted to the four new
establishments.
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