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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Lebanon
Index
When Amin Jumayyil took office in 1982, he assumed leadership
of a country that, although stunned and paralyzed by the Israeli
invasion, still had some positive economic forces at work. The Arab
states were still providing financial assistance, although not as
much as they had promised or as much as Lebanon needed. The four
powers (Britain, France, Italy, and the United States) whose troops
comprised the Multinational Force (MNF) in Beirut, created after
the invasion, were all eager to see Lebanon regain its commercial
prominence. International financial institutions, most notably the
World Bank, believed that comprehensive reconstruction was
possible. Even though the central government controlled only about
a fifth of the national territory--Israel and Syria controlled the
rest--there was an air of energy and determination in Beirut in the
midst of apparently insuperable obstacles.
It was in this atmosphere that the CDR was to fashion its most
ambitious reconstruction program. The program was projected in late
1982 to cost US$16.3 billion for the 9-year period 1982-91 (a
revised 1983-92 version was estimated at US$17 billion in the
spring of 1983). Once again, the plan proved overambitious. The CDR
initially proposed that US$1.1 billion be spent in 1983, the first
full year of reconstruction. In March 1983, however, the CDR
proposed a much more modest start, entailing expenditure of just
US$594 million during the year.
Housing was to get the largest share of reconstruction funds--
about 35 percent of all spending. The emphasis on Al Janub Province
was to be maintained, although the previous "50 percent rule" no
longer seemed to apply following the devastation of other parts of
the country by the Israeli assault and continuing occupation.
UNICEF was to administer US$15.8 million in project funds for
rehabilitation of 200 schools.
In November 1982, a World Bank team visited Lebanon and
presented a US$6.7 billion reconstruction program. But because of
doubts about how much of the program could be implemented, in
February 1983 the World Bank proposed a more limited reconstruction
project designed to cover only the Greater Beirut area in which
government or international forces were deployed.
The World Bank's program differed considerably from that of the
CDR. The CDR emphasized that housing would account for 29.4 percent
of all funding under the US$17 billion plan, whereas
telecommunications would account for just 5.1 percent. Under the
World Bank's US$6.4 billion program, housing was to get only 14.8
percent of all funds, while telecommunications would receive 16.3
percent. The World Bank's emphasis proved more relevant, and since
1982 there has been extensive repair, renovation, and replacement
work on the country's shattered telecommunications systems.
There was a renewed emphasis on water management. Beirutis have
long dug deep into the soil for fresh water. Digging accelerated
during the bitter rounds of fighting in 1975-76 and in 1982. Sea
water began seeping into the city's fresh water, and as Beirut's
sanitary system disintegrated during the violence, unpurified water
entered the drinking water system, resulting in considerable health
hazards at times.
In 1982, before the Israeli invasion, the National Waste
Management Plan was drawn up to provide the residents of 542
cities, towns, and villages--covering 83 percent of the population-
-with solid and liquid waste treatment and disposal plants by the
year 2000. This plan was incorporated into both reconstruction
programs, with priority being given to the construction of main
sewers in the principal cities. Foreign consultants were hired to
get the program off the ground, but progress was much slower then
expected because of fresh waves of conflict.
Considerable efforts to reopen Beirut's port were supported by
a World Bank loan of US$50 million and funds from Arab nations and
the United States. Transit sheds and warehouses were erected and
old and damaged ones repaired. In 1983 work started on a new
container terminal and on the expansion of the eastern end of the
port. In the city center, the Oger Liban Company boosted morale in
the autumn of 1982 as its trucks carted away months of refuse. The
company also performed restoration work in 1983 and early 1984 on
the old suqs (markets) in the commercial district. But the
heavy fighting that accompanied the renewed partition of Beirut in
February 1984 destroyed much of this work.
Data as of December 1987
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