FT: Lebanon's Water Crisis Fuels Cholera Outbreak

A report published by the Financial Times( FT) correspondent in the Middle East, entitled, "The Water Crisis in Lebanon Fuels the Cholera Outbreak: Matters are Approaching a Climax."

The report revealed that the Litani River, which winds its way across the open plains of the Bekaa Valley, on which farmers there depended to irrigate their crops for centuries, has become an unrestricted drain for raw sewage, industrial waste, and chemical fertilizers.

The newspaper adds, "With the collapse of Lebanon's fragile water systems, some people are forced to use the highly polluted waters of the Litani River to meet their household needs and irrigate their crops.

The lack of access to affordable clean water, and polluted water, is one of the factors behind the recent outbreak of cholera, the first since the disease was eradicated in Lebanon more than three decades ago, and a sign of the widening effects of the worsening economic and financial crisis in the country.