LEBANON’S WATER SUPPLIES COULD RUN OUT IN A MONTH: UN

Sat 24 July 2021:

The UN Children’s Fund warned Friday that shortages and a monetary crisis in Lebanon might lead to the mains water supply collapsing within a month.

“More than four million people, including one million refugees, are at immediate risk of losing access to safe water in Lebanon,” UNICEF said.

Maintenance expenditures incurred in US dollars, financial difficulties, together with collapse of the power grid, were rapidly destroying the water sector. according to the UN agency,

“UNICEF estimates that most water pumping will gradually cease across the country in the next four to six weeks,” it said.

“A loss of access to the public water supply could force households to make extremely difficult decisions regarding their basic water, sanitation and hygiene needs,” UNICEF Representative in Lebanon Yukie Mokuo said.

State corruption and mismanagement, led to financial crisis and now its fast spreading to every aspect of daily life of Lebanese people.

Basic medicines have been missing from pharmacy shelves for months and private hospitals warned on Thursday they were “hours away” from losing all power supply.

Electricity in most places is barely available an hour a day while the fuel needed to power generators is also in short supply.

The Lebanese pound, which for years was pegged to the US dollar, has lost more than 90 percent of its value over the past 18 months.

-FILE PHOTO

———————————————————————————————————————-

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent