Challenging the water reform narrative in post-conflict Lebanon : the case study of the hydro-social cycles on Jeanne D'Arc street /

Abstract

Responding to water-availability challenges, the Lebanese water sector has witnessed a wave of reforms, initiated in the year 2000, through the enactment of the law 221, and culminating in producing the National Water Sector Strategy (NWSS) in 2010. The reforms propose a bundle of structural adjustments and an array of large scale and costly, supply-sided, engineered projects, alongside network coverage augmentation, and upgrade of old distribution networks. Following the global trend of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) paradigm and neo-liberalization principles, the reforms propose a shift from government-lead water sector provision to privatization, and public-private partnerships (PPP). The water reform narrative highlights a looming water crisis and documents current water shortages that must be addressed by increasing water supply, mainly through improved surface water management and storage. Building on a single multiple-method case study design, this thesis looks at the hydro-social cycle on Jeanne d?Arc Street (Swyngedouw, 2004), through the lens of political ecology. Building on notions of coproduction (Ahlers et al., 2014) that help transcend the formal/ informal binaries, the research documents the heterogeneity of the existing water network(s), and maps various water networks, users and stakeholders. It also traces circulating volumes of water, and monetary exchanges. The thesis also investigates the roots of the current conditions in the water sector and challenges the premises on which the reforms narrative is based. It presents (1) the impacts of wartime practices and post-conflict policies, and (2) water narrative and legal structures since Ottoman times up to present. The research is concluded with four main findings: (1) water scarcity is a reflection of poor management practices and distorted social and power structures, (2) the existing water network exhibits a high degree of hybridity, (3) current conditions of water provision represent a coproduction between the formal a