The Resilient, the Insecure and the Uncertain

: Traditional Knowledge and Sustainable Development of Water in Lebanon - The Case of Birket-S

Abstract

Lebanon is a small country blessed with abundant rainfall, but use of the country's water resources are barely optimized. As climatic conditions become more and more extreme, traditional knowledge from arid areas is the key to resilient sustainable water management systems in rural south Lebanon. Given the inherited history, the present context, and the future uncertainties, it is essential to understand how water management be improved and made mor sustainable in this post-conflict border zone. This thesis has researched the social water arrangements and practices in place in Lebanon that are visible today, and that have proven resilient capacities and strong adaptive capabilities. Learning from how rural communities have responded to uncertainty and risk, this work has presented concepts and ideas on how and what can be done today to link ancestral practices with modern needs. After setting criteria against which to measure the effectiveness, appropriateness and relevance of these arrangements, the work focuses on the traditional communal irrigation pools - birket-s of south Lebanon. A survey of the functioning and non-functioning pools in south Lebanon was conducted to understand how resilient communities cope with and adapt to variability, uncertainty, insecurity, and risk, and to better understand the status of birket-s today. To appreciate the extent of this practice and its influence on agriculture, this work has inspected, mapped, and assessed the condition of three functioning birket-s, taken as case studies. It is clear that by reclaiming abandoned birket-s, villagers could secure additional storage capacity and raise community awareness of the region’s former sustainable management practices. Comparing the current performance of the existing birket environment with the desired expected performance that answers the sustainability necessities by measuring the different legal, institutional, social, and agricultural settings, helped determine whether the resources are being used effectively or not. A gap analysis of the institutional arrangements, legal frameworks and policies, socio-cultural environments, and agricultural settings of communal water harvesting was conducted in order to evaluate what changes would be needed in order to optimise development, protection, maintenance and management of birket-s. Several actions/recommendations for integrating formal and informal arrangements into a hybrid legal framework and that should be taken at the administrative level for implementation were therefore proposed and presented.

Date of Award	2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Dundee
Supervisor	Andrew Allan (Supervisor) & Sarah Hendry (Supervisor)