Stagnating Flows: Displacement, Governance, and the Social Life of Water in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley Restricted; Files Only
Habib, Peter (Spring 2025)
Abstract
Containing the most refugees per capita globally, Lebanon is also the most water-rich country regionally. Yet infrastructure breakdown, political impasse, and rising violent nationalism transform water’s abundance into a resource of feared scarcity, fostering exclusionary tactics of government. Through 16 months of ethnographic research, I argue that water serves as a central lens to understand national and political belonging in contemporary Lebanon. The dissertation traces water’s (non)normative flows in Zahle, the capital of the Bekaa Valley, as a material and discursive parallel to the fluid, malleable, and vital politics at play between governing actors and residents.
The project is marked by three interrelated themes: purity, domestication, and contamination. First, the dialectic of purity and pollution defines concerns of Lebanon’s ecology and nation. Zahle is marked by Christian-Lebanese nationalism, fueled by the influx of majority Sunni Syrians. Protracted Syrian residence has become metonymically associated with environmental degradation and disease, leading to widespread concerns of both national and ecological contamination. Water—in its past purity and feared pollution—reflects these political dimensions affecting Lebanon as a whole. Second, efforts of domesticating water entail the expansion of novel governmental techniques and subject-making. Millions of USD annually pour into Lebanon’s development sector which offers technocratic solutions to address the nearly 50% of water lost in distribution. Yet water loss not only results from broken pipes, but from hidden and contentious infrastructures built during Lebanon’s civil war (1975-1990). Managing unruly water flows therefore reflects the possibilities and limits of political authority. Finally, concerns of contamination define Lebanon’s future. While over 90% of Lebanese wastewater is released untreated, often seeping into aquifers, wastewater leakage is erroneously associated with off-grid Syrian settlements. As this seepage threatens Lebanon’s water-rich future, lucrative UN-led initiatives propose treated wastewater reuse for irrigation as an effort to mitigate climate change impacts and projected water scarcity. Securing or compromising Lebanon’s water-rich future lies in the process of treatment—an uncertain effort with inconsistent results in the Bekaa. As transnational organizations define water policy for decades to come, questions of viability, misappropriation of funds, and tensions between local and (trans)national rise to the surface.
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - i
Acronyms: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - v
List of Images: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - vi
Note on Transliteration: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - viii
Map: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ix
Introduction: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1
The Flows of Water and Refugees
PART I: MYTHS OF PURITY
Chapter 1: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 41
The Legends and Character of Zahle, a Village-City
Chapter 2: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 78
Of Myth and Apocalypse: The Curious Case of the Berdawni River
PART II: INFRASTRUCTURES OF DOMESTICATION
Chapter 3: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 110
Domesticating Infrastructure: Piped Distribution, Leakage, and the Debris of Development in the Bekaa Water Establishment
Chapter 4: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 152
When the Tank Runs Dry: Water Trucking as Relief Infrastructure in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley
PART III: FEARS OF CONTAMINATION
Chapter 5: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 183
Contaminating Humanitarianism: Cholera, Nationalism, and the (un)Regulated Life of Syrians in Lebanon’s Informal Settlements
Chapter 6: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 217
The Horrors and Hopes of (Treated) Wastewater: Project-ing the Future of Lebanon’s Water Crisis
Conclusion: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 247
Changing Currents
References: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 256
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