Litani River Basin Management Support Project (LRBMS)

The Litani River Basin suffers the fate of many river basins around the world: increasing demands compete for limited natural resources. Groundwater over-exploitation, deforestation and overgrazing, unplanned urban sprawl, untreated wastewater effluents, and unsustainable agricultural practices contribute to environmental degradation in the form of declining water and soil quality. Solutions do exist to reverse these trends and establish sustainable management practices. The key to successfully implementing such solutions requires applying the principles of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) through a single river basin authority rather than multiple agencies responsible for different aspects of water management as is the case in many countries. The existence of the Litani River Authority (LRA) provides a unique platform to become such an IWRM river basin authority that will mobilize stakeholders in the river basin and address these challenges in an integrated manner. Successful implementation of LRBMS prepared the LRA to assume the role of an integrated river basin authority when legal constraints are removed.

The concept of basin management here included not only management at the macro scale, but also the delivery of water services to basin users. The project was designed specifically to improving water services for all while at the same time, the LRA has responsibilities for both for irrigation service delivery in basin canal commands and for water resource management at the basin level. Some of the most critical issues facing the basin are resource-level issues such as surface water quality degradation and ground water over drafting.