Beirut district of Ber Hassen on August 5, 2003

Discussion with Hassan living the district since always.

HYdrotour: Hello Hassan, thanks for agreeing to answer our questions, for a few days we have been close. We will question you on water in the district. For recall Ber Hassen is a district which was built at the beginning of the civil war with Lebanon in the years 1970 on the grounds which belonged to rich person having fled Lebanon or Beirut.
HAssen: Yes, it is that, it as should be added for your topic as Arabic Ber wants to say "the well". Our family was one of the first to come to live here, and all the houses which you see were built under the bombs by people without aucunes experiments in the building.

HY: How much be you in your family?
Ha: We are 7: parents, 4 boys and a girl.

HY: Let us come in on the subject which concerns us: water. Which is your source of provisioning?
Ha: We have two networks, one relates to not-drinkable water resulting from a well which we divide between 6 close houses, the other, drinking water, that we will seek tous.les.jours with the store in cans of 20 liters.

"We crossed the districts... by lowering the head to avoid the balls."

HY: Thus with not-drinkable water, when have you start build this well and how function it?
Ha: We built this system at the end of the war when we started to be able to put money on side.
I remember being young, with my father, we crossed all the districts of Beirut in the car, then, a part with foot by lowering the head to avoid the stray bullets and the glares of shell. Like everyone, we were to go to this point to go to seek water known as drinkable. It was really the great concern of the day, from the geographical constraint, but also from the danger which such a forwarding represented. Moreover certain days we could not quite simply go there. Today we have a pump which takes water with a few meters of depth. This water is not drinkable, but we make use of it for all the domestic uses (showers, crockery, cleaning of the house). It is a very large advantage.

HY: Who manages this pump? Does it function full-time?
Ha: Each 6 owner (in certain zone that can be more or less 6) with paid for the digging of the puit and the purchase of the pump, today we pay all 2 dollars per month for electricity. If there is a problem we let us must pay again to repair. A person of the 6 houses is charged to collect the money and to light the pump once per day, and let us pay we it a little for that.
The pump thus does not function full-time only between 10h00 with 12h00. We have all of the cisterns on our roofs and let us fill we them during these two hours. Thanks to that we have a water reserve for all the day

HY: A few moments ago, while walking us, we a cistern which overflowed, that does it occur in this case saw?
Ha: When the tank is full water overflows, certain inhabitants do not pay attention to cut their tap. But in general, even if we do not pay water, we nevertheless try to pay attention.

HY: Do you supervise the level of the tablecloth? What will it occur when this one is too low?
Ha: The situation in an illicit district is not compared has that of a normal district, here you do not have distribution of the mail, electricity arrives but there are still much connection illegal and thus interruption of current (note in day, in summer, there is between 2 with 4h electricity per day). There is no infrastructure able to check the level or the potability of water of the tablecloth and even less to make communication for the saving in water. The day or the tablecloth will be too low, either we will dig low, or we will have to wait until it is reloaded, therefore to wait the period of the rains.

HY: And drinking water?
Ha: We pay it 0.75 dollars the 20 liters and we let us consume of them 40 liters per day for all the house (in summer, that can be 60L). In general they are the boys who are of water drudgery and we will seek it in the small gravers that you saw with 200m from here.

"If water has a bad smell, let us throw we it and we buy mineral water bottles"

HY: You know the source of this water and the hygiene which is brought there
Ha: Yes, this water comes from wells which are drinkable and we know the salesmen. If water has bad, odor let us throw we it and we buy mineral water bottles. As regards our cans, we wash them 3 times per week with bleach.
Note of Hydrotour: there is not any certification of water described as drinkable arriving in these districts. It is brought by trucks in plastic tanks and is transvased these tanks in other plastic tanks (from 2 to 3 m3) which are often apart from the stores in full sun. Nobody really knows or comes this water and the only means of testing it is the odor (absolutely ineffective). Certain ONG whose PARD (see another face of water) analyzed the water of these stores and it contain a rate of micro-organism making it almost always not-drinkable. The organization of people was accustomed to fight these micro-organisms, but much from old children and people suffer from chronic diarrhoeas.

"We must without stop pay attention so that we drink"

HY: Would you be ready to pay more to have a drinking water with the tap?
Ha: Yes well about, you know water is really an important concern, we must without stop pay attention has what we drink and where drink we it.

HY: Thank you Hassen. Do you have a message to leave the children who follow us?
Ha: Yes, initially I want to congratulate you for what you do, the children have of the chance to be able to follow you. Known as their that water is something of invaluable and that it is necessary to realize of its value before having to go to seek it with the risk of its life under the bombs. Good continuation and lives water because water it is the life.

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