Speech

Hello fellow UN delegates. I am here today with my colleagues to talk

to you about the water issues in Lebanon. [Pic 1] As we can see from
this graph, over 70% of the population are facing critical to extremely
critical water shortages. There are a number of reasons for the serious
water issues in Lebanon. Even though their geographical position
means they have the most water in the entire middle east, the health
of the water is very poor. This country was in civil war from 1975 to
1990. After the war, Lebanon’s government attempted to rebuild the
infrastructure of the country. This led to Lebanon owing a huge debt.
As a result, Lebanon has been in an economic crisis for years, where
money is very scarce. This is a major factor for the lack of clean water
as the water providers in Lebanon cannot afford maintenance on their
water treaters or fuel to power them. They also have unstable and
unpredictable power, which causes regular black outs. These issues
lead to water not being treated before being released for public
consumption, and it is not safe to be used for drinking or washing.
However, many people don’t have a choice and use the toxic water
anyway. Also, since 2015, the government has not dealt with the lack
of garbage facilities. Burning and dumping of rubbish occurs regularly
on the streets. Between the rubbish and untreated sewerage, there are
very negative impacts on the health of the waterways. [Pic 2] Many
people rely on bottled water, but the supply of this clean water is low.
Families who can afford bottled water rely on it for drinking and
hygiene, and spend over 30% of their monthly salary just on safe
bottled water. As you can see, in 2019, 1000 Lebanese pounds could
buy you 4 litres of water, but in 2021, the same amount could only buy
you 500ml. Now I will hand over to Taydon to continue.
Lebanon also had issues after the Beirut Port explosion. Many families
lost their jobs as from April 2021 meaning one in five families could not
afford the necessities to live. This really disrupted their countries
wealth, and this caused their country to be more polluted than ever.
Lots of people would be forced to live outside. Many people are forced
to live on the streets as they cannot afford temporary homes and there
are no homeless shelters. Mental health is also rapidly declining due to
the lack of water, and everyone is in a state of panic and stress. This
means more people are prone to illnesses or diseases. This has made
things from bad to worse, this would take a long time to fix, but as lots
of celebrities such as bill gates have put in millions of dollars to try and
help citizens afford to live. Many deaths of babies and children under
the age of 5 are caused by unsafe water. Which will soon affect the
future of Lebanon, as they are going to be the next generation, so the
worse thing that could happen for Lebanon’s future is them dying,
luckily there is a solution. if we use the spare money which is currently
used to buy entertainment, could be used to put another $5 million
into the water supplies and clean water. Over 1.5 million people suffer
from water shortages in Lebanon, which is the equivalent to a quarter
of the people who live in Victoria, as you realise how many people this
is, it’s hard to believe how bad their current water system is, which we
need to pay more attention to, we should construct more water
fountains or water supply as most people aren’t even close to clean
water. Now I’m going to pass it to Will who’s going to talk about access
to water.

I am here to talk about the access to water in Lebanon. The only water
supply that everyone in Lebanon has access to are the streams running
down the mountain however this would require a long walk/hike to
reach, meaning most families could not reach this clean water supply.
Although there was a plan to build a dam around the stream to keep
the water from flowing into the ocean and make it easier to access, the
funds were taken back in 2020 after many protests were held to stop
the dam. Another point leading up to Lebanon’s collapse is the Beirut
explosion in 2020. On the 5 of august at 1 am in a firework warehouse
a massive explosion erupted due to a high amount of the combustible
chemical ammonium nitrate with the fireworks. The explosion effected
70,000 homes, killed 218 people and injured over 7000. This explosion
made many citizens homeless. Leaving the city with no access to water
or electricity for months. With in a week after the explosions many
people found temporary locations to stay and over 873 water tanks
were installed around affected homes, 4485 hygiene kits were sent out
and 873 baby kits to help families and homes affected by the explosion.
Around a year and a half later the buildings around the warehouse
reconnected with public water systems and a major clean up is still
being issued i. As many Lebanese citizens have quoted,” We Lebanese
have lived through some terrible times here in the north. We’ve had
more than our fair share of crises, but today, we can’t even afford the
basics of food and water.” As the representatives of Lebanon we have
consulted our people and created an acceptable solution to our water
scarcity. If you select our group, with your generous funding we would
supply the city with a safe and clean water. We would also build an eco
friendly dam. This dam will be built from safe and sustainable materials
which will help collect safe drinking water and is made from eco
friendly sources such as mud brick which will not affect nor hurt the
environment and the animals around it. Thank you for considering our
idea and it has been a great pleasure on our part to have the
experience of sharing our ideas with you.

Bibliography:
UNICEF Lebanon. (2021). Lebanon’s water supply system: on the verge of collapse. [Online].
UNICEF. Last Updated: July 2021. Available at:
https://www.unicef.org/lebanon/reports/lebanons-water-supply-system-verge-collapse
[Accessed 26 July 2022].
UNICEF Lebanon. (2021). For many in crisis-wracked Lebanon, clean water is no longer
affordable. [Online]. UNICEF. Last Updated: 13 August 2021. Available at:
https://www.unicef.org/lebanon/stories/many-crisis-wracked-lebanon-clean-water-no-
longer-affordable [Accessed 26 July 2022].
UNICEF Lebanon. (2022). Lebanon’s water infrastructure struggles on, but remains on the
brink. [Online]. UNICEF. Last Updated: 19 July 2022. Available at:
https://www.unicef.org/lebanon/press-releases/unicef-report-lebanons-water-
infrastructure-struggles-remains-brink [Accessed 26 July 2022].
BBC News. (2021). Lebanon's water crisis. [Online]. YouTube. Last Updated: 22 May 2021.
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OfalnqnGFk [Accessed 26 July 2022].
Mohammed Hussein and Mohammed Haddad. (2021). Infographic: Lebanon is about to run
out of water. [Online]. Al Jazeera. Last Updated: 25 Aug 2021. Available at:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/25/lebanons-critical-water-crisis-interactive
[Accessed 26 July 2022].
Sophia Smith Galer. (2018). Lebanon is drowning in its own waste. [Online]. BBC. Last
Updated: 28 March 2018. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180328-
lebanon-is-drowning-in-its-own-waste [Accessed 31 July 2022].