lebanon urban profile

8/2/2019 Lebanon Urban Profile

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The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, is the United Nationsagency or human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote sociallyand environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal o providing adequate shelter or all.UN-HABITATs programmes are designed to help policy-makers and local communities get to gripswith the human settlements and urban issues and nd workable, lasting solutions.For More InormationUnited Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)UNESCO Regional OceCite Sportive Avenue Jnah BeirutE-mail: [email protected]: www.unhabitat.org

Copyright 2011By the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT),All rights reserved. No part o this publication maybe reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmittedin any orm or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without priorpermission o UN-HABITAT.


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This present report wouldnt have been accomplished without the signicant

contribution o a number o institutions and individuals.

Firstly, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme presents its gratitude to theState o Kuwait or providing nancial support to develop this report, which represents akey background document or an in-depth study o the State o Arab Cities.

Thanks are also due to the lead author Dr. Nasser Yassin and his assistants Ms. Lara el-Ghaoui and Ms. Dalia Mikdashi as well as Dr. Tariq Sheikh, UN-HABITAT Manager o theState o Arab Cities programme in Kuwait. Appreciation is also extended to Ms. RaniaJalkh or photographing selected sites that were used in the report and to Mr. AhmadFakih or the report layout and design.

Finally, we would like to emphasize the eorts o UN-HABITAT team in Lebanon orproviding necessary support and ollow up to secure the nal production o the report.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Acknowledgment2


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Introduction

CHAPTER 1

1. Population and Urbanization

1.1 Lebanon Population

1.2 Urban Population

1.3 Urbanization in Lebanon

1.4 Urban Expansion

1.5 Urban Policies

CHAPTER 22. The Growing Economic Role of Cities

2.1 Service Economy

2.2 Inormal Economy

2.3 Real Estate and Construction

CHAPTER 3

3. Urban Development and Housing Conditions

3.1 The Housing Sector

3.2 Inormal Urban Areas

CHAPTER4

4. Environmental Urban Challenges

4.1 Water Demand

4.2 Wastewater Management and Sanitation

4.3 Solid Waste Management

4.4 Energy Demand

4.5 The Transportation Sector4.6 Land and Coastal Zone Degradation

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 5

5. Urban Governance

5.1 The Lebanese Political System

5.2 Local Governance Municipalities

5.3 Current Reorm Measures

5.4 Role o Private Actors as Providers

CHAPTER 6

6. Emerging Urban Issues6.1 The Socio-Economic Divide

6.2 The Spatial Divide

6.3 The Sectarian Divide

ANNEXES

Annex 1: Tasks o the Municipal Decision-Making Authority

Annex2: Tasks o the Municipal Authority

Executive Body

REFERENCES

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T a b l e o C o n t e n t s 3


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LIST OF FIGURESFigure 1: Governorates o Lebanon

Figure 2: Lebanon Age Pyramid

Figure 3: The Distribution o Major Cities and Towns in Lebanon

Figure 4: Urban Concentrations in Lebanon

Figure 5: Urban Structure Principle Proposed by the NPMPLT

Figure 6: Economic Development Principles Proposed by the NPMPLT

Figure 7: Most Visited Tourist Sites in Lebanon

Figure 8: Unemployment or Men and Women by Age

Figure 9: Cement Deliveries

Figure 10: Construction Permits by Area per Mohaaza

Figure 11: Continuity o Water Supply

Figure 12: Solid Waste Management in Greater Beirut Area

Figure 13: Distribution o Municipalities and Unions in Lebanon

Figure 14: The Distribution o the Unions o Municipalities in Relation to the Cazas

Figure 15: Horsh Beirut with its Surrounding Area

LIST OF TABLESTable 1: Distribution o the Lebanese Population across Governorates in the Year 2007

Table 2: Projected Population Growth by Regions

Table 3: Distribution o the 15-24 Year - Old Working Force by Muhaaza

Table 4: Distribution o Responsibilities Related to Land Management in Lebanon

Table 5: Components o Water Balance in Lebanon

Table 6: Estimated WWTPs Operating Capacity and Treatment Rate, 2010

LIST OF BOXESBox 1: Denition o Urbanization

Box 2: History o Growth o Beirut, Lebanons Major Urban Centre

Box 3: Patterns o Urban Expansion in Lebanon

Box 4: Areas Covered by Master Plans in Lebanon

Box 5: Slums o Beirut

Box 6: The Case o Palestinian Inormal Gatherings

Box 7: Water Law 221/2000

Box 8: Public Private Participation in Water Management - The Case od Tripoli

Box 9: Governments Commitments in the Field o SWMBox 10: Beirut Urban Transport Project

Box 11: Licensed and Unlicensed Developments along the Lebanese Coast

Figures, Tables and Boxes4


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ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONSCAS Central Administration o Statistics

CDR Council or Development and Reconstruction

COM Council o Ministers

DGC Directorate General o Cooperatives

DGU Directorate General o Urbanism

EIA Environmental Impact Assessment

EDL Electricite du Liban

HCUP Higher Council o Urban Planning

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GNP Gross National Product

GOL Government o Lebanon

IMF Independent Municipal Fund

MOA Ministry o Agriculture

MOE Ministry o Environment

MOF Ministry o Finance

MOIM Ministry o Interior and Municipalities

MOPH Ministry o Public Health

MOPWT Ministry o Public Work and Transport

MOSA Ministry o Social Aairs

NERP National Emergency Reconstruction Plan

NIH National Institute o Housing

NPMPLT National Physical Master Plan or the Lebanese Territory

OMSAR Oce o the Minister o State or Administrative Reorm and Development

PM Prime Minister

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNESA United Nations Department o Economic and Social Aairs

UN-HABITAT United Nations Human Settlements Programme

UNICEF United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund

UNRWA United Nations Relie and Works Agency or Palestinian Reugees in the Near East

WB World BankWHO World Health Organization

Acronyms And Abbreviat ions 5


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Lebanon is a small country with a totalpopulation o 4,223,553 (World Bank,2010). Recent gures show that 87% othis population currently live in urban areaswith the majority - estimated at 64% -residing in large agglomerations mostly inthe metropolitan areas o Beirut and Tripoli(UN-HABITAT, 2008). The growth o citiesin Lebanon has paralleled the urbanizationprocess that is taking place globally. The

conditions generated out o urbanizationhave a number o universal commonalities.Urbanization brings an array o opportunities:economic, social and cultural. Cities areengines o economic growth and createlivelihood opportunities; they are also sites odiverse religious and sub-cultural groups andcommunities making lie in cities culturallyinspiring and socially richer. Challenges, on theother hand are numerous; they range romthe intricacy o providing equitable economic

opportunities and access to social services toall, to securing sae places and making theurban environment healthy and sustainable.

Cities in Lebanon refect these dynamics aswell, encompassing most o the economicprospects, livelihood opportunities andservices and accommodating or a diversepopulation that refects the dierent religiousand sectarian belongings, socio-economicbrackets, cultures and also nationalities in

the country. While this has contributed toenriching the cultural diversity in Lebanon, ithas also led to the creation o urban dividesand the rising o conficts especially duringand ater the Lebanese civil war (1975 1990). The evidence is clear today on theurban geography o cities and major urbancentres in Lebanon, which have becamespatially divided along these religious/sectarianlines, with pockets ormed to accommodateor the less advantaged groups (the poor,

the internally displaced, reugees, migrantworkers) mainly as inormal areas developedaround major cities1.

1See among others Beyhum (2001), Fawaz (2002),

Tabet (2001).

While the universality o challenges andopportunities brought by the urban conditionsare acknowledged, there has not beena systematic outlook at the specic andcontextualized challenges and opportunitiesin Lebanons cities and urban areas. This paperaims at lling such gap by proling the urbancondition o Lebanon. It is by no means acomprehensive study o Lebanese cities butit aims at instigating debate and dialogue on

these challenges and uture policy directionsthrough presenting an overview o Lebanonsurban condition.

This paper has been prepared to serve as abackground paper or the rst report on theState o the Arab Cities to be published bythe UN-HABITAT, the Arab League and theArab Town Organization. It is based on adesk review o existing and published studies,papers and reports. The paper ollows a

template prepared or the State o Arab Citiesand is divided into six sections: section onelooks at the population and urban growth,section two proles the urban economy,section three addresses the challenges tourban development, section our looks atthe environmental challenges in urban areas,section ve tackles urban governance andsection six concludes with the emerging urbanissues with ocus on Lebanons urban divides.

INTRODUCTION

Populat ion And Urbanizat ion6


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Box 1:

Denition of Urbanization

Urbanization is dened by the UN as the

movement of people from rural to urban

areas with population growth equating to

urban migration. Urbanization occurs naturally

from individual and corporate efforts to

reduce time and expense in commuting and

transportation while improving opportunities for

jobs, education, housing, and transportation.

Urbanization is measured by the percentage

change in a citys population from year to year.

Denitions of an urban area vary between

nations. European countries dene urbanized

areas on the basis of urban-type land use, other

countries such as the United States count in the

size of population and/or population density. In

less developed countries, in addition to land use

and density requirements, a requirement that a

large majority of the population, typically 75%,

is not engaged in agriculture and/or shing is

sometimes used.

Urbanization is estimated to consume an additional 10km o naturalareas every year in Lebanon, according to the National Physical Master

Plan or the Lebanese Territory. This picture, taken rom the Northernentrance to Beirut, shows the haphazard expansion o urbanization intothe mountains surrounding Greater Beirut Area.

Populat ion And Urbanizat ion 7


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1CHAPTER

Picture showing the residential area o Khandak el Ghamik, one o theless ortunate neighborhoods around the regenerated Down Town inBeirut, accommodating or low and lower middle income dwellers.


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POPULATIONAND

URBANIZATION

I . LEBANON POPULATION

II. URBAN POPULATION

III. URBANIZATION IN LEBANON

IV. URBAN EXPANSION

V. URBAN POLICIES

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Lebanon is a Middle-Eastern Arab country

located at the heart o the Eastern shore othe Mediterranean Sea. With a total suraceo 10,452Km, Lebanon is divided into 6administrative units Governorates (Mohaazats)which include Beirut, Mount Lebanon, NorthLebanon, South Lebanon, Nabatiyeh, and Beqaa(see Figure 1). The National Survey o HouseholdLiving Conditions conducted by the CentralAdministration o Statistics, Ministry o SocialAairs and the UNDP (2007) shows the distributiono the Lebanese population among the dierent

Governorates/Mohaazats, with Beirut and MountLebanon accomodating or around 50% o thepopulation (see Table 1).

Figure 1: Governorates of LebanonSource: http://mapso.net/lebanon/static-maps/png/

lebanon-governorates-english

Table 1: Distribution of the Lebanese Populationacross Governorates in the Year 2007

1.POPULATION AND URBANIZATION

Source: CAS, MOSA, and UNDP, 2007

The suburbs o Beirut were expanded around the city to absorb

population growth; today Beirut and its suburbs respectivelyaccommodate or the highest numbers o young population amongother regions in Lebanon.



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1.1 LEBANON POPULATION

Although Lebanon has been acing a decrease

in its ertility rate during the past decade, ithas a considerable youth population. Youthin the age strata 0-24 year comprise around41% o the total population (see Figure 2).Furthermore and looking at the youth acrossLebanese regions, youth in the age-group15-24 are mostly living in urban areas witharound 61% living in Beirut, Beirut suburbs,

Mount Lebanon and the North in descending

order (see Table 3). This is mostly due to theheavy presence o educational institutions,industries, service sectors and other incomegenerating activities in urban areas such asBeirut and Tripoli. Nonetheless, the abundanceo lie opportunities in Lebanons urban areasare counteracted by countless challengesrelated to the urban setting such as theovercrowding conditions, the competitionwith oreign labor orces and the low wages,which press youth to resort to emigration and

look or opportunities outside their country oresidence. This is particularly highlighted whenexamining the discrepancy in the proportiono male to emale population in Lebanon inthe 24-29 age brackets, as refected in Figure2, with the emigration phenomenon morepronounced among males (CAS, MOSA, UNDP,2007).

The population o Lebanon is estimated to

be 4,223,553 (World Bank, 2010). Whenlooking at the midyear estimates o the totalpopulation covering the years rom 1980 till2009, an increase in the population rate canbe noted during the past 3 decades, evolvingrom 2,784,713 in 1980 to 4,223,553 in2009, that is a 1.5 old increase in a period o30 years (Ibid). These gures are projected toreach 5.2 Million in 2030, as shown in Table 2.

Source: CDR, 2005

Lebanon

Beirut and Mount LebanonNorth and Akkar

South and Nabatiyeh

Beqaa and Baalbeck-Hermel

Regions Growth from 1997-2030 (%)

21.2241.18

37.93

38.90

30.79

2,310,0001,140,000

1,040,000

740,000

5,230,000

Population in 2030

Table 2: Projected Population Growth by Regions

Source: CAS, UNDP, and MOSA, 2007

Table 3: Distribution of the 15-24 Year -Old Working Force by Mohafaza

Beirut

Mount Lebanon*Beirut Southern suburbsNorthBeqaa

South

Place of Residence Percentage (2007)

Lebanon 10 0

12.125.2

11.122.611.617.4

*Excluding Beirut Southern suburbs

Source: CAS, MoSA, and UNDP 2007

Figure 2: Lebanon Age Pyramid

44 66 202Male FemalePercentage


P l t i A d U b i t i12


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1.2 URBAN POPULATION

Historically, the process o urbanization inLebanon has been largely aected by theinterplay o global and national actors thatgave Lebanese cities, and in particular Beirutand its surrounding towns, a prominenteconomic and political role to becomepopulation magnets. Global actors in thepast century, such as the dramatic changes

in the global economic system through tradeand capital fows that pushed or a regionalservice-based economy, infuenced such urban

1.3 URBANIZATION INLEBANON

dynamics. These global actors, intermingledwith national policies and approaches that

avored the role o cities as economic engines,have attracted populations to cities rom therural areas in Lebanon as well as rom othercountries.

In the period that preceded the Frenchmandate (1922 1934), Beirut had becomean important port city and a major point opassage between the Syrian hinterland andEurope (Fawaz & Peillen, 2003) (or a historicoverview o growth in Beirut, see Box 2). Since

the 1920s, and in addition to the considerablenumber o Lebanese rural migrants whosettled down in the main cities, an equallysizeable number o reugees includingPalestinian, Armenian, Iraqis, Kurds, andothers started arriving to Lebanon escapingthe devastating impacts o armed and politicalconficts in their own countries. Most o thosereugees settled in and around the main urbanareas in what started as reugee camps, someo which evolved into becoming inormalareas. Furthermore, regional geopoliticalevents since 1948 and the closure o Haiaport have played a central role in reinorcingthe prominence o cities and in particularBeirut as major Levantine urban centre.Wars and conficts also played a central rolein infuencing the urban dynamics withinLebanon. For instance, the Lebanese civil war(1975 1990) and the Israeli wars on Lebanonin the years 1978 and 1982, have caused

massive internal displacements o hundredso thousands inhabitants who fed theiroriginal rural areas o residence to saer areasin and around the countrys urban centres.Reugees and rural migrants in addition tourban population displaced by the war settledin inormal squatted settlements whichexpanded and grew in an unorganized andsporadic manner, taking up land suraces andproducing a bulk o small low-quality housingsin the outskirts o large cities such as Beirut

and Tripoli (Fawaz and Peillen, 2003). Beirutreceived the largest share as the main urbancentre o the country. Most o the residents

Lebanons urban population is estimatedat 87% (UN-HABITAT, 2008), with around3,674,500 living in cities and urban areas,making it a highly urbanized country thatoutweighs most o the neighbouring LevantineArab countries. It is estimated that 64% o theLebanese population (2,703,000) live in largeagglomerations mostly in the city o Beirutand its surrounding suburbs along with Tripoli,Saida, Tyr and Zahle (Ibid).

The increase in population size in the last 30years took place mostly in urban areas, whereurban population increased rom 2,052,000 in1980 to 3,712,000 in 2010. This was coupledwith a decrease in the rural population rom733,000 in 1980 to 543,000 in 2010. Thephenomenon has intensied during thecivil war period (1975 1990), where massdisplacement (or feeing the war and/or insearch or better socio-economic opportunities)

has resulted in a noticeable population declinein villages and the exponential growth omajor cities and urban areas. The increase inurban population has continued throughoutthe years ollowing the end o the civil war in1990, demonstrating how urban growth inLebanon has become mostly a natural growthand relying less on in-migration rom ruralareas (UNESA, 2010).



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According to the census undertaken by the Bureau Spiral, in 1989, the city o Tripoli

represented almost 80% o the total urban population in the caza. Ten years later, thecity continues to attract the largest number o people at the caza level, representingalmost 74% o the total urban population in the area. Today, the core o the city

extending over 39 ha includes 1467 buildings, 3820 oors and 5049 residential units.

Box 2:

History of Growth of Beirut,Lebanons Major Urban Centre

Prior to the war times, Beirut constituted

the primary centre to the national economic,

educational, and cultural activities. The capital

houses the main government administrations in

addition to being the main trading point with the

availability of the port and the main international

airport. A recent article on the geography and

history of Beirut outlines the 5 development stages

the city has passed by, awarding it an important

and special trait as the Lebanese capital city.

The rst phase began under the ruling of the

Ottoman Empire (1850-1920) when Beirut became

a cornerstone in the regional networks. With

an increase in openness to the global economy,

many quarters started forming outside the city

centre. The second phase was the one under and

following the French mandate (1920-1958), when

the Political Arab refugees started coming. During

this period, Beirut was somehow demolished to

give birth to a gentried centre solely focused on

trade and commerce. The third phase represents

the urbanization sprawl and the creation of the

misery belts around the city centre coupled with

a rapid demographic growth and a massive rural

to urban migration (1958-1975). This phase was

subsequently followed by the civil war period

(1975-1990) that entailed displacements within

the city centre of different religious populations

moving inside the city. Hence the 40% faction of

the Muslim communities in the Eastern suburbs of

Beirut decreased to merely 5%; as for the Christian

faction, it decreased from between 30-40% to 5%

in West Beirut and the Southern suburbs of Beirut.

During this era, militias were taking control over

the area, and created what is known as the Green

Line, delineation between East Beirut occupied by

Christians and West Beirut, occupied by Muslims.

The last phase is the post-war period (1991 till

date), when large urban reconstruction and building

activities took place. The main motto of this

epoch was that economic growth is at the heart

of establishing and maintaining peace. Hence the

focus on post-war recovery and large scale infra-

structure projects (highways, electricity etc.) and

on regenerating a state of the art central business

district as the epitome for post-war economic

development.

Source: Yassin, 2011, b




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who escaped the tragedies o war settleddown in the surrounding belts o Beirut,creating what became the urban under-servedareas or the misery belt o Beirut Suburbs2 .

Urbanization has continued to expand in thepost-war era in Lebanon. In its report on thestate and trends o the Lebanese environment,the Ministry o Environment (2010) statesa number o driving orces behind currenturbanization in Lebanon: 1) limited land areaand high population density; 2) the sanctity othe private property as rooted in the LebaneseConstitution; 3) inadequate rudimentary

(master) planning in Lebanon which has led tohaphazard urbanization trends and 4) incomeand liestyle, where many people are able to

The National Physical Master Plan or theLebanese Territory (NPMPLT) published in 2005shows the growth o urban areas in Lebanonrom 260km2 in the 1960s to 649km2 in 1998.The nation-wide study projects a continuousincrease expected to reach 884km2 in the year2030. The projected 250-300km2 geographicgrowth is expected to be concentrated in a

number o urban areas such as the centralurban agglomerations o Lebanon (i.e. GreaterBeirut and Mount Lebanon), Tripoli and other

1.4 URBAN EXPANSION

main cities such as Baalbek, Saida and Tyr, withthe main bulk being concentrated around the

cities rather than in the centre (CDR, 2005)(see Figure 4). Urban Expansion in Lebanonis concentrated in and around main coastalcities, between secondary cities and in theorm o inormal areas on the belts o cities.

Urbanization in and around main coastalcities:In Lebanon, rapid urban expansion hasmostly taken place along the (Mediterranean)coast o the country, stretching along 200km

rom the North to the South, and aroundmajor cities where most o the industrialand commercial centres are located.Developments stretching along the coastinclude large-scale reclamation projects(public and private leisure projects, dozenso marinas or leisure boats and sheries),residential development projects, and wastewater treatment plants (MOE, 2010). Whilemost o these developments occur withlimited consideration to environmentalimpact, violations o the public maritime

domain are also signicant.

Urbanization occurring betweensecondary cities and towns:Urban expansion has not been occurringonly in major cities and peri-urban areasaround them (such as Beirut, Tripoli, Saida,Tyr), but also between secondary cities andtowns (such as Zahle Chtoura; Beirut toBauchreyeh, Sin el Fil, Fanar, Zalka) (Ibid).Cities have been growing both vertically, withthe incessant erection o high-rise residentialbuildings and towers, and horizontallyencompassing surrounding lands anddomains (see Box 3).



aord secondary houses by renting or buyingsummer houses or chalets. Major cities andtowns in Lebanon are denoted in Figure 3.

2 Misery Belt is a term commonly used by the media and

the Lebanese political fgures to designate the inormal

settlements that developed around Beirut city centre in

the southern suburbs. The term reers to the miserable

conditions characterizing the low-income housing o Beirut

suburbs ranging rom environmental degradation, lowhygienic conditions, over-crowdedness, and other dreadul

living conditions.

Pictures taken o the port in Tyr city, showing the port and the seashore development in 1898 and in 2011.



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Figure 3: The Distribution of Major Cities and Towns in Lebanon

Construction in 1963

Figure 4: Urban Concentrations in Lebanon

Construction in 1998

Source: CDR, 2005




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Urban expansion occurring in the formof informal areas developed around

major cities since the civil war:These inormal areas are inhabited byLebanese population who were displacedrom their areas o origin or by reugees,mainly Palestinian reugees and smallerreugee communities (such as the Kurdish).Reugee camps, o which remains 12 todayhousing Palestinian reugees in Lebanon,have been witnessing both vertical expansionas well as horizontal spill-over around someo them, resulting in the development o

inormal areas known as Adjacent Areas.

Urban expansion in Lebanon has beenoccurring without any guiding strategies orplans, merging the cities into single largeagglomerations, threatening arable landsand biodiversity, creating transportation andtrac problems and increasing the challengeo inrastructure and services provision.Furthermore, new architectural styles andnew housing orms have sprung up inrecent decades to replace traditional shapesand structures. Despite some legislation toprotect historic buildings, the systematictransormation o Lebanons architecturalheritage is apparent in all major cities includingBeirut, Tripoli and Saida (MOE, 2010).

Urbanization could take the orm o urban sprawl on agriculture lands as

shown in Wadi Zeineh along the Saida Road in the South. Urban sprawlraises the cost o basic urban service and inrastructure provision.

The most rapid urbanization occurs in and around major coastal cities inLebanon. The city o Tripoli expanded around the historic core to the letand right banks o the Abu Ali River.

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Urban expansion also occurs between secondary cities and towns, mergingthem into larger agglomerations such as the case o Beirut Dora Zalka

stretch, showing Ashrafye in the background.




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Population growth in Tripoli led to the expansion o the old city into the areas o Bassatine, and al-Raml on the let bank o Abu AliRiver and into al-Kobbeh and al-Tell, and the area o Abu Samra on the right banks o the river. As the local Tripolitanian bourgeoisiemoved rom the inner city into the new quarters, lower income residents o the city and other rural migrants replaced them. Accordingto the municipality o Tripoli, almost 80% o residents in the old city are tenants and have been living there or at least 30 years.


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Many o the historic buildings and landmarks in cities are let or

degeneration or are destroyed to allow or the construction o new higherbuildings, picture rom Bashoura on the borders o Beirut Down Town.

Box 3:

Patterns of Urban Expansion inLebanon

Cities in Lebanon are growing both horizontallyand vertically. For example developers are erecting

buildings in vacant plots (often used as paid parking

areas) or in lieu of old buildings which are torn down

and replaced with new housing units. Meanwhile,

cities are also expanding horizontally; in Lebanon,

this urban expansion could be categorized into three

forms: circular, linear and leap-frog. Circular (or

concentric) expansion is very visible around major

cities and towns including Beirut, Baalbeck, Zahle,

Marjayoun. Linear expansion (or ribbon construction)

occurs when towns and villages expand along major

roads, creating long rows of residential housingunits and commercial centres on both sides of a

road. Noteworthy examples include the coastal

highway (from Beirut to Jounieh and from Beirut to

Sarafand) and selected inland regions (from Tripoli

to Halba and from Zaharni to Nabateyeh). Leap-frog

development occurs when developers build new

residences some distance from an existing urban

area, bypassing vacant parcels located closer to the

city. Examples include Mechref Village (Mechref),

Pine Park (Roumieh) and Beit Misk (Bhersaf).

Horizontal growth is happening at the expense

of agricultural elds (e.g. al Basatine in Tripoli),forested areas (e.g. Metn) and other natural areas

of unique environmental signicance (Faytroun in

Kessrouan and Fnaideq in Akkar).

Source: MOE, 2010.


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1964 and was mistakenly4 named the Second

Ecochard Plan (Ghorayeb, 1998). What diers

between both endeavors, that were neverully implemented, is that the latter shited the

ocus rom Municipal Beirut to include Greater

Beirut and provided an opportunity or public

and private sectors to jointly work on the plan.

However, the ailure in ormulating an urban

policy and strategy was attributed to pressures

exerted rom private developers who wanted

and succeeded in having ewer restrictions

and more room or exploitation (Salam, 1998).

Ater the end o the civil war in 1990,

the Government concentrated its post-

war recovery and reconstruction eorts

on physical inrastructure and large-scale

projects rather than on socio-economic

recovery and development. Two national plans

were developed or this end, the National

Emergency Reconstruction Plan (NERP) and the

Plan Horizon 2000, managed by the Council

o Development and Reconstruction (CDR)5.

A large component o Plan Horizon 2000was embodied in the urban regeneration o

Beiruts central district through a privately set

company known with the acronym Solidere,

developed by ormer PM Rak Hariri. The

company succeeded in rebuilding a state o

the art business district but was marred with

a number o criticisms. Solideres work was

embodied in the supremacy it oered to the

globalized private sector to control urban

spaces and contribute to the modernization

o the largely historical area o Beirut (Larkin,2009). The alarming and supreme domination

o the private sector was accompanied by

an exclusion o the previous owners. Other

critiques o Beiruts urban reconstruction build

on the neo-liberal assumption and describe

the continuous erosion o public space and the

amnesiac erasure o the citys confictual recent

history (Ibid). All o the previously mentioned

elements contributed to designing a heart

o the city o Beirut that is solely catered ormiddle to high and high income brackets.

Historically, the Lebanese State demonstratesa laissez-aire approach in the urban domain

and its intervention in the urban sector was,

and continues to be, minimal. Except or land

regulation, investments in inrastructure and

ormulation o building codes, the State has

shied away rom developing a comprehensive

urban policy that regulates the erratic growth

o urban areas in Lebanon.

Aside rom the rst proposals submitted during

the French Mandate in 19323 , the State has

been less successul in the attempts to create

a ramework or urban policy especially or

major cities such as Beirut and Tripoli. The rst

attempt that tackled the growth o Beirut was

drated in 1943 and became known as the

First Ecochard Plan named ater the leading

French architect and urban planner Michel

Ecochard. This plan aimed at incorporating

modern planning as the main approach to

revitalize the city, and aspired at placing theState as well as municipalities as the primary

decision-makers. The second attempt was in

1.5 URBAN POLICIES

3 It was the frst serious attempt to produce an

urban master plan and was prepared by Danger in1932. Though never implemented, the Danger planasserted the three major axes o circulation as axeso expansion o the growing city: Beirut-Tripoli to

the North, Beirut-Sidon to the South and Beirut-Damascus to the East.

4 Ecochard participated at frst in the development

o the 1964 plan; however he let when the plantook a trail that he disapproved.

5 The NERP and the Plan Horizon 2000,complemented later by Plan Horizon 2005,

presented multi-sector programs that included more

than 100 projects, some o which still on-going, tobe essentially fnanced by oreign and internal loans.

Another aspect o the plans was the privatization

o major industries; numerous contracts wereawarded in important industries such as energy,telecommunications, electricity, airports and roads.The last and perhaps most signifcant aspect o Plan

Horizon 2000 was economic stimulus via oreigndirect investment (CDR, 1992).

A recent attempt to provide policy directions

that respond to the challenges o a highly

urbanized context is the 2005 NationalPhysical Master Plan or the Lebanese

Territory (NPMPLT) prepared by CDR. The Plan

addresses the management o land use and

aims at promoting unity, equitable regional

development, sustainable use o resources,

economic productivity, social development,

environmental protection, and heritage

conservation. It highlights the need to develop

planning protection in the regions (80-90%

o the territory) and adequate policies to

ensure uture housing developments that

are appropriately integrated into the existing

urban abric. In addition, it presents a number

o urban programs, including a coordinated

program o inrastructure development in

areas that are being rapidly absorbed by

Beiruts southern urban spread (CDR, 2005).

For an illustration o the urban organization

proposed by the NPMPLT, see Figure 5. In

2009, a decree was issued that allocated the




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Figure 5: Urban Structure Principle Proposed by the NPMPLTSource: CDR, 2005

National Physical Master Plan or the Lebanese

Territory as a general guiding ramework to

urban planning and land use in Lebanon tobe abided by all actors involved in planning

including governmental institutions and public

agencies. It should be mentioned however

that the Master Plan only provides guidelines

and recommendations that still need to be

reinorced by means o mandatory laws and

relevant policies and regulations.

Another relevant attempt with an impact on

cities and its people lies in the ormulation o

the National Social Development Strategy6

in 2007 (published in 2011), which aims at

improving the social welare o the Lebanese

population through improving social

saety nets. It aspires at enhancing living

environments in concentrated urbanized areas

and promoting home ownership among low-

income amilies through the extension o credit

acilities and other tools within the private

sector. In addition to environmental protection

and heritage conservation, the strategy aimsat promoting public parks, libraries, sports

acilities and transport networks. It also aims at

protecting rights through enhanced legislation

and at ostering public utilization o unused

lands through changing building codes. It

intends to ormulate a housing policy directed

by the Ministry o Social Aairs (MOSA) to

enable it to see the distribution o housing

loans in a more regionally equitable ashion.

Further to that, in order to upgrade the living

standards in urban slums, the plan ocuseson extending basic services such as water

6 The National Social Development Strategy wasdrated as part o the Social Action Plan Frameworkdeveloped by the Government o Lebanon in 2007.

The plan recognizes the need to integrate socialdevelopment in a strategic and inclusive mannerwithin development projects to improve socialindicators.


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Urban development at the expense o natural and mountainous areas, such as the case o al Matn in Mount Lebanon.

Urban development on agricultural lands, such as the case o Saida.

7The Strategy was presented during a workshoporganized by the Ministry o Social Aairs and UNDP

in September 2010. During the ollowing months,the internal political situation started to deteriorateand reached its climax with the collapse o the

government interrupting all ministries related plans.

and sanitation and improving the physical

conditions o existing buildings. Finally, the

strategy looks at reviewing building restrictions

in Palestinian camps, providing inrastructure,

clariying ownership ambiguities within them

and reorming current legislative barriers

to Palestinian ownership (UNDP, 2009).

Although the National Development Strategy

represented a rst comprehensive attemptto address social policies in Lebanon, it has

not yet been endorsed by the Council o

Ministers.7




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Key players in urban planning:The above has shown how the State

policies towards urban planning and urbandevelopment have been minimalistic. Still,there are a number o key players in urbanplanning and development in Lebanon thatwork within the previously mentioned policyrameworks. The Directorate General oUrbanism (DGU), established in 1959, wascreated as part o the Ministry o Public Worksand Transport and was commissioned todrat a Master Plan or urban and regionaldevelopment. The plan has succeeded in

developing several localized plans in the areao land use and management to account orthe large growth o urban areas; however,ailed to address the national urban challengesthat kept arising along with the unregulatedurban sprawl. The DGU prepares and reviewsmaster plans all over Lebanon except inBeirut and Tripoli and the three unions omunicipalities (Jbeil, Kesrouan and Metn)that have urban planning / engineering units.In general, a signicant number o regional

master plans are prepared by architectsor engineers who do not necessarily haveprior experience or competencies in urbanplanning (MOE, 2010). These master plansare presented, only once nalized, tomunicipalities or approval or negotiation.Although municipalities are supposed to playa key role in developing and implementingurban projects, they all short in terms o theirnancial and human resources which impedetheir roles as basic-level administrations.

Furthermore, many towns in Lebanon haveno municipal council and thereore resort tothe Kaemakam or administrative issues andthe regional department o urban planningor urban planning issues (Ibid). Urbanmaster plans covered only 16.2% o theLebanese territory in 2004, most o whichwere concentrated along the coast, with theremaining areas let as unplanned or evennon-surveyed (see Box 4).

Other institutions working at the central/governmental level are the Higher Council

or Urban Planning (HCUP) and the Councilor Development and Reconstruction

(CDR). The HCUP includes representativesrom several ministries as well as specialistsin urbanization, and is responsible oradvancing recommendations that guide urbanplanning at national level. As or the CDR,it was ounded in 1977 to take charge oreconstruction and rehabilitation projects. Itwas assigned the task o developing a NationalPhysical Master Plan or the Lebanese Territoryto regulate urban growth. For a summary othe key actors involved in urban planning and

land management in Lebanon, reer to Table 4below.

Whilst a considerable body o institutions areavailable to come up with and implement smalland large scale urban projects, several obstaclesare aced such as:

theabsenceofoverarchingguidingpolicies;

apersistentlycentralizedandconventionalapproach to planning;

limitednancialresourcesandweakgovernance and institutional capacities;

highrelianceoncontractedarchitectsand

engineers to carry out planning leavinglittle or no room or local stakeholders to

participate in planning and implementation.

The centralized control o planning with itstop-bottom approach and the marginalizationo the municipalities have not only lead tothe non-realization o these plans but havealso drastically limited the opportunities orplanners to get involved in the public sector.According to the MOE (2010), urban plansin Lebanon ocus exclusively on the physicalplanning and do not approach urban planning

rom a strategic perspective or adequatelyaddress urban issues such as sustainability,livability, accessibility and environmental,spatial and equity issues. In addition, theurban planning system is not immune topolitical intererence and contestations andis oten geared towards maximizing land usecoecients. As a result, master plans usuallydeal with plans and zoning only rom theperspective o permissible built-up areas andtotal allowable height with little regard to

other vital components (such as position obuilding in lots and distribution o land usesand activities) (Ibid).

Table 4: Distribution of Responsibilities Related to Land Management in Lebanon

National landuse master planning

Protected areas management

Forest management

Urban planning regulations

Public maritime domain(coastal zone)

Protection o cultural heritage

Protection o riversand waterways

Management oreligious estates

Quarry sector

Responsibility / Party

x

x

x

x

xx

x

x

xx

x

x

x x

x

x

x

MOPWT(DGU)

MOE MOA MOC(DGA)

MOEW MOIM CDR ReligiousOrders

Source: MOE, 2010


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Urban development around major historic sites and heritageareas, such as the case o the old city and the Citadel in Tripoli.

Box 4:

Areas Covered by Master Plansin Lebanon

In 2000, urban master plans covered 10.3

percent of the Lebanese territory (CERMOC, 2000

in SOER, 2001). Subsequent analysis showed that

this extent only covered urban master plans thathave been both approved by the Higher Council

of urban Planning (HCUP) and decreed by the

Council of Ministers (COM), and issued during the

period 1960 2000. A study conducted in 2004

identied additional urban master plans that were

approved by the HCUP but not yet decreed by

the COM. They cover 614.3 km. Therefore the

total zoning extent in Lebanon until 2004 covered

about 16.2 percent of the territory or 1,693

km. The remaining area (83.8%) is unplanned

) and only partially surveyed )

). Urban master plans are primarily )concentrated along the coastal zone and large

agglomerations. Unplanned areas are administered

and managed by blanket regulations that rely

mainly on two factors: lot coverage and oor-

area-ratio. Areas that have not been surveyed

or demarcated account for about 50 percent of

the country (30% demarcated but not surveyed

and 20% neither demarcataed nor surveyed

and still under TABO transaction log used by the

Ottomans); these rely on very approximate maps

most of which were drawn many decades ago

based on aerial photos and with a high margin oferror.

Source: MOE, 2010.




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Tyr or Sour has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. Threats to Tyrs ancient cultural heritage includedevelopment pressures ollowed by the illegal antiquities trade. Illegal constructions in the vicinity o the archeological sites

in Tyr have not stopped since the years o the civil war, most recently occurring in 2011 as shown with some new buildingswithin the archeological site in the picture


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2CHAPTER

2CHAPTER


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Since the end o the Lebanese Civil War in 1990, the port o Beirut has gone

through a major restoration and expansion program with the rehabilitation oexisting port acilities, the construction o new administration buildings and a

new container terminal. The Port has been selected as a transshipment hub orthe 2nd and 3rd largest container shipping companies in the world.


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THE GROWING

ECONOMIC ROLE

OF CITIESI . SERVICE ECONOMY

II. INFORMAL ECONOMY

III. REAL ESTATE AND CONSTRUCTION

30

The Growing Economic Role O Cities


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Figure 6: Economic Development Principles Proposed by the NPMPLTSource: CDR, 2005

Ongoing political instability since theassassination o the ormer Prime MinisterRak Hariri in 2005 and the Israelis attack in2006 has been a major barrier to the countryseconomic development. In 2006, ater apromising start and a predicted GDP growtho 6% or the year, no real GDP growth wasrecorded largely as a result o the Israeli attackon Lebanon and the devastating impacts ithad on the national economic welare (UNDP,2008). Currently, Lebanon has one o thehighest debt-to-GDP ratios in the world. Net

public debt was $29.5 billion in 2002 (158%o GDP) and $39 billion in 2007. Debt servicepayments came to 16% in 2002 and 13.2%in 2007. Lebanon also suers rom a chronictrade decit (around $9 billion in 2007,approximately 34% o Lebanons GDP). Theexport-to-import ratio was 23.8% in 2007.This naturally impacts on the countrys balanceo payments (Ibid). In order to enhance theeconomic role o cities, the National PhysicalMaster Plan or the Lebanese Territory

proposed an arrangement o economicactivities shown in Figure 6. However suchproposal still needs reinorcing laws, policiesand projects.

Lebanons economy is signicantly a liberalizedeconomy that relies heavily on the privatesector and is geared towards the serviceeconomy. Lebanon has been committed toadditional treaties with Arab and Europeancountries mostly to benet its private sector,

in particular the agricultural, industrial andservices sectors (Ibid).

In Lebanon, the urban economy is dominatedby the service sector where most o thecountrys working orce is employed (41.6%),ollowed by trade (22.6%), industry (13.8%),and agriculture (7.2%). Beirut in particular,which comprises one third o the total

population in Lebanon, contributes to roughly

2. THE GROWING ECONOMIC ROLE OF CITIES

2.1 SERVICE ECONOMY


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In a context o a liberal service economy, real estate development andconstruction in cities attract the highest investments in Lebanon.

31The Growing Economic Role O Cities

32



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The historic souqs o Tripoli, maintained mostly by individualand private initiatives rom shop owners.


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Figure 7: Most Visited Tourist Sites in LebanonSource: CAS, 2008

8 Source: http://www.lebanonembassyus.org/country_lebanon/economy.html

75% o the total country economy (WorldBank, 2008). The service sector takes a

signicant share in the capital city, embracing52.4% o the working orce. Commerceand tourism are two o the most importantsubsectors, with the ormer owing its successto Beirut Port, considered as the oremosttrading point in the Eastern Mediterraneanregion.

Most o the Lebanese hotels, restaurants,and resorts are located on the sea shore andin the highly dense urbanized areas such as

Beirut, Jounieh, and Tyre, directly contributingto modeling the current urban economy (seeFigure 7). Tourism is an asset that Lebanoncan rely on to increase its competitiveness inthe international market. Lebanon holds aprivileged geographical location and a strategicposition in the Mediterranean Sea, whichconers it a suitable climate or tourism at allour seasons. Tourism constitutes around 20%o the countrys GDP; however, it is boundedto the national political and security situation

and is very vulnerable to regional politics andconficts. In 2011, the instability in Lebanonand the region have caused severe and promptimpact on all tourism activities shown in thedrop o tourists visiting Lebanon, which directlyaects the countrys economy.

The nancial services constitute anotherbranch o the service sectors, notably withreerence to insurance, commercial andinvestment banking8 . The Lebanese banking

sector witnessed a notable growth in the post-war period, whereby total deposits increasedby 27.4 billion USD rom 1992 till 1999.Also, the banking system opens up the gateor capital infow mainly rom the Arab Gulcountries which directly contributes to nationaldevelopment.


34



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In addition to residential buildings and projects, most o the Lebanese hotels, restaurants and resorts arelocated in highly urbanized areas along the sea shore.


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36



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9 Gross National Product (GNP) is the market valueo all products and services produced in one year

by labor and property supplied by the residents oa country. Unlike Gross Domestic Product (GDP),which defnes production based on the geographical

location o production, GNP allocates productionbased on ownership.

Street vendors in the historic core o Tripoli.

In addition to having a service-based economy,cities in Lebanon have a sizeable inormal

economy. In the post-war period, the size

o the inormal economy in Lebanon was

estimated at 34.1% o the total GNP9 or

the year 1999/2000, ranking 7th in Asia

(Schneider, 2002). The current situation in

Lebanon that uels the creation o a chaotic

socio-economic environment is oreseen to

sustain the occurrence and signicance o the

inormal economy, which continues to make

a major contribution to the national GDP(Rossis, 2010). Inormal economy includes all

economic activities and jobs that are outside

the realm o state regulation (licensing,

taxing, etc. do not apply) in addition to illegal

activities (smuggling, drugs, tracking etc).

In Lebanon, inormal economic activities are

mainly refected in inormal employment and

in the commerce sector that do not abide by

licensing and paying taxes (Ibid).

The roots o the inormal economy inLebanon could be traced back to the last

century, where the long ermentations o

Lebanons past ormulated and cemented

the ingredients o the potentially embedded

inormality in the country, which not only

aects the market and the economy but

also the civic system and society as a whole

(Denoeux 1993, Rossis, 2010). According to

the study conducted by Rossis (2010) on the

benets and dangers o inormal economyin Lebanon, one contributing actor to this

economy is the bureaucratic environment as

2.2 INFORMAL ECONOMY


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Inormal fshing activities in Dora.

As part o its the Cultural Heritage and Urban Development (CHUD) Project, the Government o

Lebanon undertook an initiative to relocate the inormal vegetable market in the historic city oTripoli, including some street vendors, to a platorm covering River Abu Ali Channel.

shaped by the governmental organization

and course o action and the decit o civil

attention (attributed to the public institutionsthat serve the population). Another actor

relates to the deeply entrenched inormal

practices into the mindset o the Lebanese

society, where by the majority o the Lebanese

society, even i it demonstrates considerable

disapproval towards the undesirable products

o inormality, acknowledges that the patterns

in the social organization are rather unlikely to

change i current political and economic trends

continue; as a result, people are increasingly

obliged to resort to the inormal economy(Ibid).

The rapid urbanization that occurred in

the 50s, 60s and 70s had promoted the

multiplication o inormal associations

and networks in Lebanon, which played a

stabilizing role in sustaining the operation

o the inormal economy (Denoeux, 1993).

More recently, inormal economic activity

was attributed to corruption, as this involves

massive economic transactions on a dailybasis with an enormous impact at both

microeconomic and macroeconomic levels, and

also to the continuous presence o inormal

networks that acilitate illegal activities as well

(Rossis, 2010).

The high rate o unemployment is a main

driving orce that stimulates the oversupply

o workers into the inormal economy (see

Figure 8). In addition, most o the Lebanese

small entrepreneurs are driven by economicand social barriers that make it avorable and

even compulsory or them to rely on inormal

economy. For instance, no incentives are

properly put in place to motivate registering

establishments and paving the way to the

more ormalized type o economy. This is

urther accentuated by the high tax rates and

the absence o tax breaks relative to small

businesses. Consequently, entrepreneurs rely

on inormal mechanisms in order to maximizetheir prots.


38



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Figure 8 :Unemployment for Men and Women by Age

Source: CAS, 2007

Real estate development, and in particularproperty construction, has been mostly seenthrough the lens o a neoliberal ideology,with the private sector and market orcesplaying the central role in designing the urbancondition. According to the MOE (2010),demand or property grew exponentiallyin the last decade and Lebanon witnessedrecord investments in its real estate sector andconstruction rom nationals, expatriates andoreigners, who eared the global nancialinstability. Foreign investment is drivenby the limited restrictions imposed by the

Government and the system o taxation thatdoes not enorce higher taxes on oreignersinvesting in Lebanon. Although the recentchanges and revolutions taking place in theArab Countries have brought real estateinvestment and prices slightly down, themarket is still guaranteed to make high prots.

Investment in the construction and real estatesectors is concentrated mostly in MountLebanon (along the coast) and in Beirut (see

Figure 9 and Figure 10) (Lowry, 2010). Thetotal surace area o construction permits

issued in Lebanon between 2007 and 2008leaped rom 7.9 million to 14.2 millionm; in Mount Lebanon alone, the area oconstruction permits almost doubled rom 4.3million to 8.4 million m (MOE, 2010). A recentgure suggests that around 11.5 million mare still reserved or construction in additionto 5,376 buildings being under construction,compared to 2,931 buildings in 2007 (Lynch,2010; Qiblawi, 2010). Furthermore, the

Banque du Liban statistics conrms suchincrease in construction seen in cementdeliveries continuously increasing on yearlybasis since 2006.

However, in the absence o urban policies andregulations to guide large scale constructions,

Lebanons redevelopment has been criticizedas being volatile. The consequences haveembraced grievous implications on Lebanonsphysical and natural environment andits inrastructure both o which have adetrimental eect on the populations qualityo lie (Frommherz-Hassib, 2010). Accordingto the MOE (2010), Lebanon is too smallto sustain the current constructions (roads,housing, commercial development, and seareclamation projects) on the medium to long

term without causing irreversible damage to itsnatural resources and landscapes. Noteworthy

2.3 REAL ESTATE ANDCONSTRUCTION

Illegal constructions built in 2011 around archeologicalsites and landmarks in Tyr

Constructions along the sea ront in Ain el Mraisseh

Old and new constructions along the bank o Abu AliRiver in Tripoli


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Figure 10: Construction Permits by Area per Mohafazat

Source: CAS, 2008

is the impact these constructions entailed on the historical and culturallandscape o cities such as Beirut and Tripoli, where massive destructionsirreversibly demolished a cultural heritage, that is now lost in modernarchitecture (Fielding-Smith, 2010). Given its drastic immersion inconstruction activities, Lebanon lies at the hub o an urban sprawlcrisis that deserves careul analysis and monitoring on the part o keystakeholders.

Figure 9 :Cement Deliveries (First nine months or each year - in 1,000s o tons)

Source: Banque du Liban, 2010

Architectural heritage buildings and landmarks o Beirut are

overshadowed, even replaced, by high rise buildings andtowers. In the Down Town area, the construction o new gated

residential communities is taking place including three thatcomprise 185 apartments in Wadi Abu Jmil alone.


40



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Current laws and regulations related to urban planning (and those related to water, orests, protected environment) do notprotect mountains or recognize their value as a system, threatening heritage, landscape, biodiversity and water sources. In rangelands in Lebanon, the main driving orce to habitat loss or change is urbanization. The urban expansion on the mountains isevidence rom the Northern entrance to Beirut, as shown in the picture.


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3CHAPTER


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Houses added to existing historic buildings in Tripoli


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URBAN

DEVELOPMENT

AND HOUSING

CONDITIONSI. THE HOUSING SECTOR

II. INFORMAL URBAN AREAS

44

Urban DevelopmentAnd Hous ing Condit ions


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The old city o Tripoli suers mainly rom physical degradation,

inadequate sanitation and solid waste collection, and environmental andacoustic pollution. The residents themselves, most o whom are lowerincome populations, cannot aord to link their residences to the main

sewage lines or to improve their housing conditions

The reconstruction activities in the atermatho the civil war have stabilized the countryseconomy through upgrading the inrastructureand attracting investments rom nationalsand oreigners, mainly Arab citizens. Mosto the investments geared towards urbandevelopment occur in the orm o largescale developments; or instance aroundty percent o total Arab oreign directinvestment in Lebanon targeted large propertydevelopments in 2007/2008 (ESCWA, 2008).To give some examples on the size o such

properties, land holdings by Gul CooperationCouncil (GCC) investors in Lebanon totaled 0.5million m in 2002 and 2 million m in 2005(BLOM Investment Bank, 2010). The overallincrease in the number o buildings in Lebanonwas estimated at 4.03 percent or the periodspanning 1996 to 2004 (MOE, 2010).

3. URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING CONDITIONSHowever, the internal upheavals and theunstable political situation veiling the countrysince 2005, have worsened the physical,social, and economic abrics, contributingto widening the gap between the rich andthe poor, between rural and urban areas andwithin given areas as well. Urban poverty andits causes have not been extensively studiedin Lebanon; one can rather nd abundantinormation on overall poverty in countryreports and national studies conducted by UNagencies, ministries, and other internationalgovernmental and non-governmentalorganizations. A notable change in povertyindicators was noted between 1995 and 2004with a decrease in both the households livingin extreme poverty (rom 7% till 5%) andthose living in relative poverty (rom 28% till

18%) (MOSA and UNDP, 2004). This decreaseis primarily related to an improvement in thesectors o housing, water and sewerage, andeducation. Income, however, scored a notabledeterioration, paralleled with the increase inunemployment10 and the decrease in thepurchasing power (Ibid). Most poor urbanpockets are located in the vicinities o majorcities in the suburbs o Beirut, Tripoli andSaida, all o which housing the highest numbero the Lebanese poor.

10 Unemployment among the 15-64 age category is put at

9.2% out o which 47% belong to the 20-29 age category

(CAS, 2007).


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3.1 THE HOUSING SECTORThe housing market has undergonesubstantial changes along the urbanizationprocess and mostly driven by an increasein housing demands especially post thecivil war that ended in 1990. Accordingto the MOE (2010), the overall increase inthe number o residential units in Lebanonrom 1996 to 2004 was estimated at 4.03percent. Subsequent to the rural-urbanmigration and the fow o migrants andoreign workers who settled in the outskirts

o large agglomerations and due to the infuxo oreign investment, real estate priceshave skyrocketed in and around Lebanese

cities. Although this has created increaseddemand on housing, it also made owninga residence in urban areas very problematicespecially to low and middle-income amilies.This comes in an environment where socialhousing and governmental policies towardshousing the low income amilies have beenminimalistic. The governmental policy has soar been limited to regulating the provisiono housing loans to low-middle incomeamilies. There are currently two main publicinstitutions that oer housing acilities: theNational Institute or Housing (NIH) and the

Directorate General o Cooperatives (DGC).The ormer oers housing loans to amilieso low socio-economic statuses, provided

that applicants have a stable job with a xedincome. This poses a major challenge to thelow-waged and low-skilled labor orce, asthey do not meet the terms and conditions othe NIH. The DGC on the other hand, aims atorming housing cooperatives to improve thehousing conditions o low-income categories.Nevertheless, housing cooperatives have soar ailed to become major players in thesocial housing sector due to some challengespertaining to the lack o technical expertiseas well as a shortage in human and nancialresources.

45Urban DevelopmentAnd Hous ing Condit ions

46



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New residential areas in Saida have expanded around the historic core and market o the city.Today and under the current real estate and housing market, smaller apartments between 100and 250m are the most selling, as in the case o the rest o the major cities in Lebanon, and oran average price o USD 500,000 to USD 800,000.


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48



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With the ownership o decent shelter/housebecoming exceptionally challenging to thelow and middle-income amilies, renting has

become the main method or securing housing(Fawaz and Peillen, 2003). Additionally,ollowing the end o the civil war, many

original owners in the declining war-aectedareas o Beirut and its suburbs opted to rentout their properties instead o returning to their

ormer homes oten to migrant workers (Ibid).This phenomenon continues to take place in theinormal areas around the cities such as BeirutSouthern Suburb, Jnah, Dora, etc.

Poor housing conditions in Tripoli


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With an increased pressure on housingmarkets in cities and urban areas, inormalsettlements become the only aordablealternative to the low income amilies. Theseunderserved urban areas have expanded sincethe arrival o rural migrants in the 50s andthe internally displaced during the civil war(1975-1990). Inormal settlements have otendeveloped at the cities ringes especially inBeirut and Tripoli, generally in violation to

construction codes and planning regulations,which resulted in poorly constructedneighborhoods and slum-like areas. UN-HABITAT estimates that the slum to urbanpopulation in Lebanon was around 50% inthe year 2001 (UN-HABITAT, 2010). For anoverview o slums in Beirut, reer to Box 5.

Urban underserved areas in and around maincities have multiaceted traits, accomodationgor people o various religions (i.e. Christian

and Muslims in Beirut suburbs), nationalitiesand ethnicities. These areas house, in addition

3.2 INFORMAL URBAN

AREAS

to Lebanese, Palestinian reugees and migrant

workers coming rom Egypt, Syria, Sri Lanka,Iraq, Sudan and others, who mostly live insmall unt houses. Environmental and housingconditions are generally precarious and highlyvariable; some structures are temporary, othersare permanent buildings (Fawaz, and Peillen,2003). Most o the residents in these areassuer rom low quality housing including ahigh level o humidity, inadequate access tobasic urban services and inrastructure, lack ohousing aeration, in addition to an absence

o natural lighting. Most o the buildingsare old structures usually let without anymaintenance and repair11.

With the limited urban service provisionby the State and in many instances by themunicipalities, dwellers in the under-servedurban areas have managed over time todevelop sel-sustaining mechanisms thatpermit them to access basic urban services.Many use inormal ways to hook to theelectricity network, sewage system or to accesswater.

11 Inormation on urban slums was drawn rom a number

o case studies mostly conducted in the outskirts o

Beirut. These studies can be obtained rom the ollowing

reerences:

- Choueiry, N. and Khawaja, M. (2007). Displacement

and Health Status in Low Income Women: Findings rom

a Population-Based Study in Greater Beirut. Journal o

Immigrant and Reugee Studies Issue, 3:1, 1-13.

- Habib, R.R. Mahoud, Z. Fawaz, M. Basma, S.H. and

Yeretzian, J.S. (2008). Housing Quality and Ill Health in

a Disadvantaged Urban Community. Journal o Public

Health, 123, 174-181.

- Habib, R.R. Yassin, N. Ghanawy, J. Haddad, P. andMahoud, Z. (2010). Double Jeopardy: Assessing

the Association between Internal Displacement,

Housing Quality and Chronic Illness in a Low-Income

Neighborhood, Journal o Public Health, 1-12.

- Makhoul, J. Abi Ghanem, D. and Ghanem, M. (2003).

An Ethnographic Study o the Consequences o Social

and Structural Forces on Children: the Case o two Low-

Income Beirut Suburbs. Environment and Urbanization,

15: 2, 249, 260.

- Nuwayhid, I A, Usta, J, Makarem, M, Khudr, A and

El-Zein, A. 2005. Health o Children Working in Small

Urban Industrial Shops, Occupational and Environmental

Medicine; 62:8694.

The inormal neighborhood o Hay el Tanak in

Mina in the North lacks roads, access to waterand sanitation and adequate housing. The land,once public, was recently sold to a private owner

and residents were sentenced by court to leavetheir houses although they still live there.

Two housing projects developed by the Maroniteand the Antoninian endowments (awka) to belong leased, mainly to their constituencies.

The Kobbeh housing project built by theMinistry o Displaced in the 1990s to house

war- displaced amilies in Tripoli.


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In the midst o these challenges pertainingto the urban setting, some groups o people

nd themselves more prone to internal andexternal shocks; those are the most vulnerablecategories. They include the unemployed,those who cannot aord sustaining a stablemonthly income to meet their basic andnon-basic supplies; the displaced who losetheir main source o income once they moverom their initial areas o residence (i.e.inormal slum dwellers); the elderly and thedisabled who dont have any orm o incomegeneration activity or dedicated policies, in

addition to the youth who drop out romschools to join the labor orce and help theiramilies increase their monthly revenues.Palestinian reugees also represent a vulnerablecategory o people, given the laws in practice(which ban them rom working in most jobsand rom owning properties or ormingorganizations) and to the scarcity o resourcesthat are mirrored in the low-quality o livingconditions. Around 53 percent o thesereugees live in the 12 ocial camps servicedby UNRWA in Lebanon and a total o 42inormal areas known as gatherings (UNRWA,2005) most o which distributed around majorcities in Lebanon (see Box 6).

The reliance on social and political networksrepresents one o the ways low-incomedwellers in particular resort to, in orderto access elementary services that meettheir basic needs o survival. For instance,amilies with low income rely on their kinsor social and nancial support and use theirconnections to nd cheap and appropriatehousing. Similarly, the urban poor solicitsupport rom political parties, whom, in the

As part o the Karm al-Zaytun embellishment project, initiated by theHelp Lebanon NGO in 1997, the local community o Karm al-Zaytuncontributed to upgrading street acades o their houses with the help o

proessional workers, volunteer artists and architects.

- World Vision (2006). For Establishing an Area

Development Programme in Ain el Remmaneh and its

surrounding areas. Area Assessment Report.

- Yassin, N. Riai, D. and Maani, M. (2006). Local Situational

Analysis, Issues and Possible Interventions. World Vision,1-125.

Box 5:

Slums of Beirut

According to Fawaz and Peillen (2003), there

exist 24 slums* in the metropolitan urban area

of Beirut, which house some 300,000 dwellers,

compromising over 20% of the population of

Greater Beirut Area. Slum dwellers in Beirut

could be divided along four main groups

(although they do not constitute all those living

in poverty in Beirut); these groups include:

Rural migrants who came to the city since

1950s seeking work and whose economic

conditions did not improve.

Other Lebanese population displaced in differentwaves due to the various military conicts

between 1975 and 1990. The largest, in 1976

during the civil war, included the evacuation of

most slum dwellers living in the Eastern section

of the city (controlled by opposing Christian

militia) to the Western parts.

International refugee groups of whom

Palestinian refugees and Kurdish communities

are still living in slums in precarious conditions.

Intentional labour, notably Arab (Syrian and

Egyptian) male workers and Asian and African

(Sri-Lanki, Ethiopian and Filipino) maids.*Dened as areas of the city where the majority

of residents live in precarious economic and/

or political conditions, with high levels of

vulnerability, and where services and living

conditions appear to be lower than other

section so of the city.

Source: Fawaz and Peillen, 2003


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absence o governmental social and welaresupport, harbor their constituents by providingthem with the adequate and necessary social

services. Although political parties oer arelatively sustainable means o securing accessto services (such as health, education, monetaryassistance, water), such practices outline thesectarian boundaries that exist in these highlyvolatile areas, highlighting the gaps in thedistribution o benets among those with andwithout political and religious aliations.

Policies Towards Informal Settlements:

The State has shied away rom ormulatingpolicies to address inormal settlementsand their dwellers in Lebanon. Accordingto Fawaz and Peillen (2003), laissez-airehas been the rule, although punctuated byviolent incidents o eviction mainly to makeroom or large inrastructure projects such ashighways. There was one notable attempt toupgrade the coastal area in Southern Beirut,but which came about to be less successul.The project that was named Elyssar was

initiated in 1996 to upgrade and developthe coastal areas o the Southern suburbs oBeirut targeting around 120,000 to 130,000residents o which 80,000 were estimated to beresiding in illegally built houses (Harb, 2011).The public agency, established to lead thisproject, primarily aimed at creating economicdevelopment opportunities and improvingthe inrastructure o the area while providingaordable housing units or dwellers in place.However, the project was hindered by strong

conficting views between the major politicalactors: the Hezbollah-Amal versus ormer PMRak Hariri. The latter viewed the project withinthe perspective o a neoliberal rational planningapproach where the private sector can play amajor role in regeneration while the ormerperceived the project as a public interventionto improve social conditions o the residentsand as such an opportunity to strengthen theirpatronage o their constituency (Harb, 2001).Eventually, these dierences that were and are

still embedded in the contested political contextin Lebanon have prevented the implementationo the project to date.

Box 6:

The Case of Palestinian InformalGatherings

A particular case of informal settlements in Lebanon is thatof Palestinian Gatherings or simply gatherings. The denitionof a gathering was rst introduced by Fafo (2003) to indicate

locations outside the camps that accommodate groups ofPalestinian refugees. Other studies identied the presenceof 42 gatherings in Lebanon that accommodate for around63,000 Palestinian refugees (DRC, 2005; PU/NRC, 2009).Twelve of these gatherings are located directly around theboundaries of ofcial camps as informal extensions; thesegatherings, known as the Adjacent Areas of PalestinianRefugee Camps, accommodate for around 30,000 35,000

refugees (UNDP&UN-HABITAT, 2010). Gatherings weredeveloped around the major cities in Lebanon in Tyr, Saida,North Lebanon, Bekaa and Mount Lebanon in descendingorder of their number.

A number of issues characterize living conditions in thegatherings in Lebanon, which were reported by Fafo (2005)to be the worst for Palestinian refugees living in the MiddleEastern hosting countries. Some gatherings were built inthe late 40s and early 50s with the arrival of the groups ofdisplaced refugees from Palestine. Most of the gatheringsthough were developed later during the 70s and the 80s asa substitute for the overcrowded camps or in an attempt tond safer refuge during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990).The majority of gatherings were illegally built on publicor private lands; however some cases exist where by thePalestinian refugees purchased lands or houses but mostlyfailed to ofcially register their properties*. In addition toinsecure tenure, dwellers of the gatherings face limitationson rehabilitating or upgrading their houses; even when suchprojects are undertaken by NGOs, they are banned fromreplacing the zinc roofs with concrete roofs for example.In addition, gatherings witness a huge gap in the provisionof basic urban services, (mainly in the sectors of water,sewerage, solid waste collection and road networks). Being

informal areas that are inhabited by Palestinian refugees,gatherings are usually not included within the municipalservice provision. While UNRWA is mandated to providebasic urban services only within the boundaries of the 12ofcial camps, dwellers in the gatherings are left to relyon informal mechanisms and self-help initiatives that allowtheir access to alternative basic urban services. In general,these mechanisms, implemented in ad-hoc manner within alimited budget, are characterized by being insufcient andunsustainable and unable to respond to dwellers needs. Thiscontributes to further worsening refugees living conditions inthe gatherings and expands the problems and environmentalimpacts to the surrounding areas.

* In 2001, a law was issued that prevented Palestinian refugees from

owning properties in Lebanon.


4CHAPTER


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The Saida waste dump, located on the searont 200m rom nearby residential

and commercial units, received 150 tons o solid waste per day rom 15municipalities in 2010. A new plan aims at replacing it with a (privately owned

and operated) controlled dump and solid waste treatment acility.


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ENVIRONMENTAL

URBAN CHALLENGES

I. WATER DEMAND

II. WASTEWATER MANAGEMENTAND SANITATION

III. SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

IV. ENERGY DEMAND

V. THE TRANSPORTATION SECTOR

VI. LAND AND COASTAL ZONEDEGRADATION

4 ENVIRONMENTAL URBAN CHALLENGES

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Environmental Urban Challenges


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4.1 WATER DEMAND

The rapid demographic growth, urbanexpansion and improvement in lie standards

have caused and will continue to increase thepressure on the natural resources in Lebanon(CDR, 2005). Major actors such as the losso arable land and biodiversity, increasedpollution and the rising costs o inrastructureare impacting upon land resources andour natural environment (MOE, 2010). TheNational Physical Master Plan or the LebaneseTerritory estimates that urbanization wouldevery year consume an additional 10 km onatural areas (CDR, 2005). In such a context,eective management o environmental

hazards and risks, required o the government,is hindered by a number o actors includingthe unstable political environment, the lacko resources and the lack o a guiding visionor policies. This section will look at theenvironmental challenges in Lebanese cities.

The population growth, estimated at a rate o

1.2 percent per annum (World Bank, 2010)and the increase in consumption rates arecausing a rapid increase in the demand orwater or domestic use in urban cities, whichis estimated to reach an average o 420 mm3

4. ENVIRONMENTAL URBAN CHALLENGESin 2030 (CDR, 2005). Falling short in meetingthe domestic demand (supplying roughly 280

mm3

), the local Water Authorities12

ace anarray o natural challenges such as the reducedamount o rainall and snow cover due toclimate change, as presented in Table 5 (CDR,2005, World Bank, 2010).

Moreover, the mismanagement o waterresources, namely the very low water storagecapacity, high amount o water lost to the sea,low operational maintenance o the waterdistribution network (40-50% o the water islost through leaks) and absence o an ocial

management scheme or the water sector (seeBox 7 or inormation on Water Law 2000)lead to regional and seasonal discrepancyin the supply o water (MOE, 2001; UNICEF,2010; CDR, 2005; World Bank, 2010). Arecent UNICEF report (2010) showed that88% o the urban households in Lebanon areconnected to the public network, but not allhousehold receive the same quantity o water.The report presents data showing that waterdelivery depends on the availability o water in

the network, the water pressure, the locationo the household and the season (UNICEF,2010). The continuity o water supply inLebanon is presented in Figure 11 hereater.

12Water Authorities (WAs) in Lebanon operate under

the jurisdiction o the Ministry o Energy and Water.

These autonomous WAs are responsible or operating

local projects ollowing the MOEW approval, distributing

domestic and irrigation water to users, controlling the

quality o water and managing the disposal o wastewater

collected by municipalities in their respective areas

(Makdisi, 2008).Source: Mudallal (1989) as cited in CDR ( 2005)

Input: Rainfall + SnowLosses from evapo-transpirationGroundwater

- Losses outside the national boundaries,

into the sea and to neighbouringcountries: 570 mm3

- Un-exploitable groundwater and seasprings: 600 mm3

- Natural springs fow: 1 145 mm3

- Stored and pumped amounts ordomestic and irrigation uses: 685 mm3

Components Average annual volume (mm3)

+9300-4500-1800

-3000

Table 5: Components of Water Balance in Lebanon

The river o Beirut coincides today with a majortransport corridor linking the coast o Greater BeirutArea with the hinterland.

Loss o water in the network accounts or the highestpercentage o water loss in urban areas in Lebanon,picture rom Bauchreyeh, Greater Beirut Area.


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In 1968, Nahr Beirut was converted rom a riparian river to aconcrete canal and eventually, it mutated into an open sewer. The

highway built on its right bank completed this conversion into aninrastructural conduit o sewage and transport.

Box 7:

Water Law 221/2000

At the time when policies and actions to reorganize

the water sector in Lebanon are fragmented, Law

No. 241 (29/5/2000) came as a reform measure

to strengthen the accountability in the water

sector. The Law reorganizes the existing 22 water

boards into four Regional Water Authorities:

Beirut and Mount Lebanon, North, South , and

Beqaa in addition to one pre-existing river basin

agency. The 2000 reform Law mandates a clear

separation between policy-making and service

provision through the establishment of nancially

and administrative autonomous Regional WaterAuthorities. Autonomy is manifested by the

authorities role in setting subscription fees for

domestic water supply and collecting water tariffs

for domestic and agricultural use. Soon after

the enactment of the Law, the respective reform

agenda, reached an implementation impasse. A

recent report by UNICEF states that the reasons

for not putting the reform agenda into practice

were related to implementation difculties. Such

difculties were related to nancial limitations and

human resource problems.

Source: WHO, 2010; UNICEF, 2010

55Environmental Urban Challenges

Figure 11: Continuity of Water Supply

Source: World Bank, 2010

56

Environmental Urban Challenges


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As a mean to secure water or dailyconsumption, 50% o the population purchasebottles or gallons, 25% o the population usewater rom vending trucks, 10% use water

rom spring or tapstand, and 10% use privatenetworks (UNICEF, 2010). Another measureused to address the shortage in water supply isseen in some towns creating their own waterservices and water commissions (Domesticand irrigation) under the Ministry o Energyand Waters decision (Ibid). Furthermore, someother local authorities (ex: case o Tripoli)cooperated with the private sector to bettermanage water provision (see Box 8).

A recent country environmental analysisconducted by the WB shows that existinglegislations or the protection o waterresources in Lebanon dates back to 1925and even to the Ottoman era; these werenot updated and sparsely complementedwith additional laws and application decrees(World Bank, 2011). However, the MOEW hasormulated a drat water sector strategy whichis supposed to be nalized in 2011 to coverlegal, institutional, technical, managerial andnancial aspects o the water, wastewater and

irrigation sectors (Ibid).

Box 8:

Public-Private Participation in WaterManagement - The Case of Tripoli

The North Water Authority has experimented with

private sector participation to improve operational

efciency in the Tripoli area. The Water Authority

delegated to a French company the management of

water distribution, O&M, and billings collection for thepotable water system in Tripoli on a trial basis for the

period 2003-2007. The most remarkable achievement

of the private operator has been the signicant

reduction of water losses and the extension of 24

hours of daily supply to the entire urban area of Tripoli

due to upgrade and rehabilitation of the network.

However, the private operator was unable to increase

billings collection to the cost-recovery level, despite

its effort to recover fee arrears. The parties were

unable to reach an agreement for the extension of the

management contract, which ended in 2007.

Source: WHO,2010

lebanon urban profile

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