Water Scarcity and Social Tensions in the Bekaa: Roundtable #4 Report

This report documents the proceedings and key outcomes of the fourth roundtable discussion organized by the WE’AM Project, held on December 4, 2025, in Chtoura, Bekaa region, Lebanon. The roundtable brought together local authorities, civil society organizations, NGOs, water establishment representatives, UN agencies, and donor partners to examine the critical intersections between water scarcity, tensions, and social stability in the Bekaa region. The report synthesizes the roundtable inputs on water-related tensions, with lived experiences and institutional perspectives shared by 30+ participants at the roundtable. The primary objectives were to identify knowledge and information gaps hindering trust-building processes, explore how water scarcity and infrastructure deficits contribute to social tensions, and compile actionable insights for improved water governance and moving forward with conflict-sensitive water programming. This report serves as an evidencebased resource for policymakers, donor agencies, civil society organizations, NGOs, and local authorities seeking to address the root causes of water-related tensions while strengthening social stability in most waterstressed regions.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Water scarcity in the Bekaa has shifted from a chronic stressor into an immediate driver of social instability and mistrust, as deepening drought, collapsing infrastructure, and overlapping crises converge with limited governance and expanding informal water economies to fuel tensions within and between communities and institutions. The roundtable convened under the WEAM project in December 2025 positioned water governance as a core peacebuilding and social stability priority, generating evidence-based, conflict-sensitive recommendations for emergency water security measures, structural governance reforms, and inclusive dialogue mechanisms to reduce tensions and protect the most vulnerable, including refugees.

Water scarcity, tensions, and vulnerabilities- Participants confirmed that the Bekaa is moving from a seasonal drought context into a longer drought phase, with main wells and surface sources drying for the first time in localities such as Deir El Ahmar and Baalbeck, and at least 1.58 million people affected by drought and declining rainfall and snow. Between January and September 2025, 15 water-related incidents were documented in North Bekaa and Baalbeck, including one fatality, while municipalities reported suspension of some agricultural activities and complete failure of certain wells, signaling that water scarcity is now a direct tension driver materializing into conflicts. Tensions manifest horizontally and vertically. Municipal representatives documented clashes between villages over encroachments on springs and streams (e.g. Baalbeck–Nahleh, conflicts over Yammouneh Lake), as well as intracommunity disputes among farmers competing for decreasing irrigation water. Vertical mistrust between citizens and public institutions is widespread, with 99 percent of surveyed residents in Western Bekaa and Rachaya reporting insufficient water and fearing shortages, and many attributing shortages to institutional mismanagement, inequitable distribution, pollution, and failure to regulate illegal access rather than to structural scarcity. Compounding crises magnify these pressures: the f inancial collapse, climate-driven drought, the 2024–2025 hostilities and strikes, and displacement (including from Syria) have overloaded already fragile water and energy systems. 

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