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One year after the outbreak of hostilities that opposed Hezbollah and Israel during the summer of 2006, the situation in the South of Lebanon remains tense. The civilian population continues to bear the consequences of this conflict. A lot of work is still needed to repair housing, the road network and the water-supply infrastructure. But the reconstruction work is obstructed by thousands of unexploded bomblets still polluting the areas.
Despite this danger, people have had to continue living in these areas and farmers have had little choice but to plant their fields. Hamad Hassan was injured when a bomblet he had tried to remove exploded near his leg, hitting his leg and foot. He now has to live with a paralysed leg and is finding it hard to support his parents and four sisters.
A large international effort is under way to rid Lebanon of cluster submunitions as soon as possible. Over a thousand deminers from dozens of different organizations are involved. Teams from the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action - FSD (www.fsd.ch ) are an important part of this vital effort. They are supported by ECHO whose officer Cyprien Fabre says: "All reconstruction efforts and initiatives for a return to normal life are obstructed by sub-munitions. People cannot go to their fields; the return in their homes is complicated".
A cluster munition canister can contain hundreds of submunitions that scatter over a wide area. The United Nations estimates that hundreds of thousands of submunitions in Lebanon did not detonate. Of the over 200 civilian victims since the end of the war, the majority of injuries and deaths were due to such submunitions. More figures can be found from the Mine Action Coordination Centre South Lebanon, MACC SL (www.maccsl.org).
Submunitions dropped in populated areas make unintended victims long after the fighting ends. People in the affected area can never feel safe, knowing that these weapons can destroy their lives at any moment.
Cluster munitions also cause long-term economic hardship. The lethal unexploded remnants of war have by now been cleared from many roads and urban areas, and work is continuing to clear fields. Submunitions may lie on the surface, be buried underground, or even hang tangled in the branches of trees.
In a very tense environment, engineers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have carried out substantial repair work on water stations damaged in last summers' intense bombings. The surroundings of the Ouazzani water source are dry. This source feeds the Masbani River in South-East Lebanon and is located near the occupied Golan in the area of Khiyam. The water source lies in a valley, downhill from an Israeli settlement and its well is used by the Lebanese population and Israeli settlers.
Ouazzani water station, only a few kilometres away from the water well, was partially destroyed by Israeli bombings during the summer of 2006. The ICRC has repaired the water station and built a new water tank (750 cubic meter) supplying 70,000 people. In this same area six soldiers serving with the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Unifil) were killed recently when their vehicle was hit by an explosive device.
The newly functional water station has changed peoples' lives as Fadi el Ahmad, a young farmer, who used to have to carry big buckets of water, explains; "Everyday, we have a great water consumption. Water is really the most important thing in our lives as we own a lot of animals and fields. There all have great needs for water and we must provide them with sufficient water".
In the Bekaa Valley further north, the ICRC has also repaired water stations that, although not hit by the bombing, are old and in need of maintenance. One of them, Chamssine water station, provides water to 100,000 people in the valley. The ICRC dug two additional wells to pump up ground and replaced some spare parts. Chamssine water station is now in working order but problems remain: frequent power cuts mean that people can often not pump up water to fill up the tanks on the roofs of their houses.
As mayor Hassan Dib Saleh of Majdel Achjar town in the Beekaa Valley, repeats in Arabic: "Ma fi kahraba, ma fi mayy" meaning 'No electricity, no water'. The shortages only further increase tension in an area where the government is finding it difficult to maintain basic services.
For further information, please contact:
Dorothea Krimitsas, ICRC Geneva, tel +41 22 730 25 90 or +41 79 251 93 18
Virginia de la Guardia, ICRC Beirut, tel +961 1 739 297/8/9 or +961 70 12 98 69