Nahr el Bared Refugee Camp Crisis (Lebanon) - American ...

enormous on the coastal villages (mainly first ring village) and are a result of the pollutions thatstart from the highest altitude villages, it would be pointless to have intervention in coastalvillages if the problem is not first solved at high altitude, the “Qamoua” – (entonnoir) is thereservoir for most of Akkar villages and already Michmich has yearly water born diseases and nomore potable water like Bebnine.Intermediary StepsEconomic recovery steps should benefit the two existing communities and help in establishing athird. The first two communities concern the agricultural workers and the fishermen, while thethird community is more diversified and relates to the tourism sector.Develop the fishing sector should occur by assisting fishermen in providing better means forfishing and storage of the fish. As the fishers are in the threshold of poverty and cannot apply theLebanese conversion for shifting, I suggest constructing two basins in the sea in Abdeh(Bebnine) for cultivating fish, to be managed by the cooperation of fishermen. The gain fromthese two basins can be distributed to all the fishers of the community during the period when theMediterranean fish is in the process of maturing. This is the only way to convince the fishermennot to fish during this period and to use conventional nets. Improving the fishing port bydeepening it is also very important.Concerning the agricultural sector, our need assessment study as well as many studies done bythe UNDP has insisted on the importance of promoting and agro-industries based on domesticagricultural outputs. The same conclusion was reached by the Consultation and ResearchInstitute’s Rapid Social Assessment showing that economic issues related to agricultural relatedactivities should be a top priority for any developmental program that addresses poverty clustersin areas like Akkar (CDI, 2006) . Constructing local markets to sell local products in could aid inthe enhancement of the economic situation of these areas. Furthermore, this would lead to theempowerment of the women of these localities who often need a place to sell their domesticproducts. However, instead of constructing one for each municipality, we suggest a regionalstudy in order to establish one or two markets which can serve some municipalities adequately.To offer its local products, each municipality can use the market once or twice a week. Asexpressed by local actors in Mahamara and Bibnine, it is important to establish a crop nursery inorder to maximize seed production, minimize production cost, and finally to ensure good qualityand pest-free seeds. The establishment of a soil laboratory in the region is very important sincethis will help the farmers in producing unique kinds of products. This should be accompaniedwith a capacity building of farmers about the agriculture techniques and marketing skills but alsoaccompanied with the provision of microcredit programs.As for Bebnine, it seems that a refrigerator for vegetables is very vital and can help farmers selltheir products for a better price when out of season. Interventions to process fruits are prioritizedeconomically. Given the citrus production, and faced with low quality product, it is anticipatedthat establishing a fruit processing facility with a well designed marketing strategy is a numberone development project that would open up new working opportunities, build workers’capacities, grant women a greater stake and empower their status locally, as well as ensuresustainability for income generation if linked properly to the market. (Fatfat, 2008)