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LONDON: Every morning, Lebanon awakes to the rumble of trucks selling drinking water to households, many of which are unable to afford such necessities in the ongoing economic crisis. That familiar sound is unlikely to fade soon, as the country faces its worst drought in 65 years.

With average rainfall having fallen by almost half over the past year and reservoirs at critically low levels, the shortage is compounding hardships in a country battered by Israeli bombardments since 2023 and an economy in freefall since 2019.

The Litani River National Authority, which manages irrigation and power projects along Lebanon’s main river, said inflows to Lake Qaraoun, the country’s largest reservoir, reached only 45 million cubic meters during the wet season, compared with an annual average of 350 million — the lowest level yet recorded.

The effects are widespread. A Sept. 9 report from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, found that one-third of Lebanon’s population — more than 1.85 million people — live in drought-prone areas, while 44 percent depend on costly and often unsafe trucked water.

Shrinking snowpacks and earlier melts in Lebanon’s highlands have further reduced water supplies.

Experts say the crisis is not seasonal but existential, fueled by ongoing tensions with Israel and Lebanon being the largest refugee host per capita.

Joseph Saddi, Lebanon’s energy and water minister, called the shortage “the worst in years.” At an August news conference, he said most countries prepare for such conditions with contingency plans, infrastructure upgrades and reserve supplies.

Lebanon, he said, “has seen no serious steps in that direction.”

In April, Saddi met with the heads of water utilities in Lebanon and the Litani River National Authority to draft an emergency plan.

Measures include cracking down on offences, urgent maintenance, forming additional repair teams, rescheduling water distribution fairly and transparently, activating unused wells, and securing energy to keep them running as long as possible each day.

The ministry has also launched a public awareness campaign, prepared a drought-risk map with the UN children’s fund, UNICEF, and on Aug. 6 appealed to donors for funding to equip and operate additional solar-powered wells.

Aid groups say immediate intervention is critical. “The most urgent step is to keep water flowing to people despite the drought, fuel shortages, and damaged infrastructure,” Wehbe Abdul Karim, project manager with the Italian NGO WeWorld in northern Lebanon, told Arab News.

“This means making sure pumps and treatment plants have the electricity and fuel they need, quickly repairing broken pipes and wells, and putting some basic rules on private water trucking so it’s safe and affordable.”

He said aid groups can also help by trucking water to the hardest-hit areas, distributing chlorine and filters, installing solar-powered pumps, and raising awareness on safe and sustainable water use.

But he also underlined the importance of regular testing and clear public updates “to prevent outbreaks of diseases linked to unsafe drinking water.”

Those concerns were echoed by a UN-led water, sanitation, and hygiene group, which in September warned that Lebanon is highly vulnerable to cholera, hepatitis A, and rotavirus due to deteriorating services, displacement, and severe drought.

War has made matters worse. The Israel-Hezbollah conflict, which began with crossborder fire on Oct. 8, 2023, and escalated last September into an Israeli bombing campaign across Lebanon, left at least 150,000 people in southern Lebanon without running water, according to a study by Action Against Hunger, Insecurity Insight, and Oxfam.

More than 30 towns and villages were cut off from supply networks after the Maisat water pumping station and the Wazzani water intake center in Nabatieh governorate sustained severe damage.

The study found that Israeli strikes have caused long-term disruption to fresh water supplies. The World Bank estimates these attacks have resulted in damage worth $171 million to Lebanon’s water, wastewater, and irrigation systems.

Infrastructure destruction extends beyond the south. In Bekaa’s Schmustar, in the east of the country, one well was completely destroyed and five more were damaged, leaving thousands dependent on a tank that fills to only 20 percent capacity.

Since October 2023, at least 24 public water networks in the south have suffered severe damage, with four more moderately damaged.

The agricultural sector has been hit hard, threatening food security. In October 2024, Israeli forces reportedly bombed the main distribution route from the Litani River to the Qasmieh irrigation project, which normally supplies 260,000 cubic meters of water a day to 6,000 hectares of farmland along the southern coast.

“The attacks had devastating consequences for farmers, as water shortages impacted irrigation and food production,” said Christina Wille, the director of the Switzerland-based NGO Insecurity Insight.

She added: “More than 82 percent of the farmers interviewed in southern Lebanon during the research said they couldn’t get enough water to irrigate their crops or to give drinking water to their livestock.”

The effects are evident nationwide. In the Bekaa Valley, 70 percent of potato farmers did not plant this season due to unreliable irrigation, leaving much of the land uncultivated, Ibrahim Tarshishi, head of the National Farmers’ Union, told Lebanese media.

In central and northern Bekaa, many fields went unwatered, slashing production. More than 100,000 tonnes of produce are unsold in storage, while falling global potato prices have further discouraged planting. In the south, citrus and banana farms are also at risk.

Experts say the roots of Lebanon’s water crisis run deeper than conflict or climate. Sami Alawieh, head of the Litani River National Authority, told Lebanese media the problem is “structural, not seasonal.”

He warned of a new phase defined by “climate, drought, and mismanagement” and called for urgent investment in wastewater treatment to prevent Lake Qaraoun from becoming a national liability.

WeWorld’s Abdul Karim agrees, saying Lebanon needs more than “temporary fixes,” but rather “a complete reset in the way water is managed.”

“That begins with fixing old, leaking pipes, infrastructure, treating and reusing wastewater for farming, and looking at smaller desalination projects along the coast,” he said.

“But these steps won’t matter unless deeper reforms are made to reduce political meddling, bring more transparency, and set water prices that are fair without hurting the most vulnerable families.

“Reforestation and better protection of watersheds will also be key as the country faces harsher and more frequent droughts.”

Even as management falters, demand keeps rising. Reliance on private trucking predates the drought and war, growing steadily over the past decade as households supplemented unreliable public services.

The 2019 financial collapse accelerated the trend, with resulting power blackouts also crippling water authorities.

In 2022, UNICEF said per capita water supplies from Lebanon’s public water authorities had decreased considerably since 2019, “falling short of the 35 liters a day considered to be the minimum acceptable quantity.”

To make up for the failures of the public system, more than 60,000 unregulated private wells have been dug, trucked water from private providers has become widespread, and most households are forced to rely on bottled water over concerns about tap water quality.

The financial burden is crushing. About 80 percent of Lebanese now live in poverty, with 36 percent in extreme poverty. The prolonged economic crisis has shrunk gross domestic product by more than 38 percent, according to the World Bank.

The currency has collapsed, inflation is rampant, and the banking sector is paralyzed.

Bottled water is becoming a costly resource for many households, especially in Beirut and the Bekaa. The average price tripled between 2021 and 2022, while the price of trucked water rose by 50 percent.

By 2025, prices for trucked deliveries had risen 60 percent compared with early 2020, according to the September UNHCR report.

In Beirut, a 2,000-liter tank typically costs between $10 and $22, depending on location, vendor, and whether additional pumping is required for higher elevations or rooftop tanks, locals told Arab News. The supply may last a week, depending on household size. For many families, it is now the only option.

The UNHCR report said that addressing Lebanon’s worst drought will require at least $100 million in funding across the water, sanitation, hygiene, and agriculture sectors. 

Without urgent action, UNHCR warns that the current water scarcity risks spiraling into a wider crisis affecting health, food security, education, and stability.