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WAZZANI (Lebanon), Oct 16: Lebanon began pumping water on Wednesday from a southern river that also supplies Israel — a project that has drawn Israeli ire and US mediation to avoid a regional flare-up.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told parliament in occupied Al Quds that Lebanon’s new project to pipe water from the Wazzani river to parched villages could lead to an escalation of hostilities between the countries, which have no relations.
The Hezbollah, which helped end Israel’s 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in May 2000, has warned it would retaliate “within seconds” for any Israeli attack on the water station.
But Israeli officials have toned down recent references to the water dispute, apparently giving way to international mediation efforts to limit the amount of water that would be channelled to Lebanese villages.
Amid tight security, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud officially opened the project on the Wazzani, a tributary of the Hasbani river that feeds the Jordan river and the Sea of Galilee — Israel’s biggest freshwater reservoir.
Lebanese security forces stood guard as Lahoud sent water gushing through the pipe at the centre of the row, which has prompted Washington to dispatch envoys to cool tensions and drawn U.S. calls for Lebanon not to begin pumping.
BALLOONS: Hundreds of red and white balloons were released as the water began to flow, and revellers splashed around in the water.
Thousands of people, waving Lebanese flags, turned out to watch the ceremony as Lebanese and Israeli forces patrolled the border area near the Wazzani, witnesses said.
Israeli jets have circled over the area in recent weeks as workers put the finishing touches on the project.
Lebanon says the amount of water it plans to use — up to an extra four million cubic metres a year — is within its rights under international law.
It now pumps seven million cubic metres a year.
Lebanon has also said it would not be talked out of plans to tap water from the Wazzani for irrigation, following suggestions that it limit use of the river to drinking water.
A new report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia said Lebanon had not broken any international agreement but said the row should be resolved diplomatically.
“It is a duty of the Lebanese government to supply local residents with water for domestic and other use,” said a copy of the report. “We consider that the Lebanese government has not breached any international agreement and that United Nations mediation is necessary.”
Peres said he saw the water issue as a “a difficult test whose development could influence...in future the moves of the Syrians and the Palestinians regarding water and create a regional conflict over water in addition to the territorial conflict that already exists.
“The unilateral Lebanese step could cause a severe escalation between Lebanon and Israel. We will not and cannot agree to unilateral steps and we preserve the right to protect our water supply according to...international law,” he said.—Reuters
