The aftermath of May 2016 Municipal Elections was the birth of new local authorities across the country, which are zealous to prove themselves as true servers of their respective communities. As not all the municipalities have enough resources, the Liaison and Development Office (LDO) in the Lebanese Organization of Studies and Training (LOST) is providing the interested municipalities with all sorts of support. One of the beneficiary villages was Talya in Baalbeck-Hermel Governorate, in which a memorandum of understanding (MOU) has been signed on Tuesday, August 9, 2016 to support it with an electric generator to run the water station in response to the increasing water needs in the area. One day after MOU signature, the village received its generator.
According to the municipal council, the main factor causing the deficiency in water supplies is the shortage in the electric power necessary to run the station. This shortage is causing the improper functioning of the station, in which it is only working upon the existence of the sporadic electric power provided by the national institution of electricity, which provides insufficient water to the villagers.
Addressing the problem, the municipal council has contacted LOST’s LDO to discuss the need for an electric generator to be installed to secure consistent and permanent performance of the water station. The suggested solution was to support the village with a 100 K.V.A generator to satisfy the residents’ needs including the households and the Syrian Informal Settlements on a daily basis. In result, the resident’s rights in a proper reach of water, added to securing resilience against hygiene risks could be guaranteed.
Depending on its wide-range network, LOST’s LDO has succeeded in transforming Talya’s need into a request to the German organization, Orienthelfer, who immediately processed the case. Rapidly Talya’s need was responded to, and the generator was delivered one day after signing the MOU.
This achievement is promising as it proves the importance of cooperation between Baalbeck-Hermel’s municipalities and LOST’s LDO in the light of its abilities in interconnecting the municipalities’ needs to the potential donors. Talya’s generator securing the villagers with water supplies is only the beginning!
