Updated National Water Sector Strategy (NWSS) 2020 - Volume I

This updated NWSS is aligned with the National Water Sector Strategy of 2012. It takes into account the adoption of the Water Code (Law 77/2018) and its structuring principles, which are in turn in line with the water sector structure as defined by Law 221/2000 and its amendments. The new Strategy consists of VI Volumes, of which this is Volume I concerning the Executive Summary.
The Volume illustrates, in summary, the general objective of this Strategy, which plans for the next 15 years of the water sector up to 2035, to structure and develop sustainable water services to improve people's living conditions by mainly strengthening integrated water resources management. The achievement of this overall objective is based on the following specific purposes (i) build an operational and sustainable legal and institutional framework to ensure proper management of the water sector allowing the development of sustainable and efficient services; (ii) develop financing tools for the sector to set-up financial mechanisms allowing the sustainability and the financial balance of the services; (iii) involve all actors in the service chain and establish sustainable mechanisms for collaboration and coordination to improve the sector monitoring and transparency. The main pillars on which the Strategy is built are (1) Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in turn based on a number of implementation principles, such as (i) equity between all categories of the population, including the right of access to water and sanitation for all; (ii) subsidiarity, to encourage resource mobilization and user participation at the lowest possible level; (iii) information, meaning the right to be informed of the state of water resources and to participate in consultations and procedures prior to decisions being taken; (iv) planning and participation, to increase the involvement of users and partners in all water resources planning and management processes; (v) sustainable development, to meet the environmental needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations; (vi) water management at river basin level, applied in Lebanon at a technical level, but without replacing the administrative and institutional framework within which the Lebanese water sector is functioning; (vii) cooperation; (viii) precautionary principle, to avoid or reduce any risk of water resources pollution or any threat to water resources; (ix) polluter-pays principle; (x) user-pays principle; (xi) responsibility, to ensure that current and future uses do not cause damage to the resources; and (2) users as key actors for implementing sustainable services, making them responsible and identifying them as key actors in the functioning of the service.
The other volumes of the Strategy concern: Water Sector Governance (Volume II); Water Sector Management (Volume III); Water Sector Situation (Volume IV); Proposed projects (Volume V); and Drawing (Volume VI).