Reference
has already been made to the weak link among the indicators comprising
this field, as the availability or lack of a certain service in a region
is not linked to the availability of the other services. This alters the
ranking of kadas based on the extent to which they suffer deprivation,
and in the significance of the lack of any of the services in question.
According to Table 80 below, the kada of Bent-Jbeil ranks first with
respect to deprivation, with the percentage of households deprived of
water and sewerage services reaching 54.4 percent of the total. The
extent of deprivation, however, is minimal (0.9 percent) with respect to
sewerage, and is close to the overall average for potable water (55.8
percent) and forr water for domestic use (50 percent). Koura, which is a
relatively urban kada in North Lebanon comes second. While it is not
usually considered among the deprived kadas with respect to the other
indicators, the percentage of deprived households in this kada according
to the water and sewerage index reaches 53.8 percent. This is due
exclusively to the lack of acceptable potable water services. The
percentage of households deprived of this facility reaches 73.2 percent,
compared to 6.2 percent only for the indicator of domestic water use,
and 4 percent for the sewerage indicator.
The extent of deprivation, and the ranking of kadas, vary greatly
depending on the index used. Thus, the kada of El-Minieh comes first
with respect to deprivation of sewerage; the kada of Bent-Jbeil ranks
first on the scale of deprivation with respect to the use of water for
domestic purposes; and Koura with respect to potable water.
Table 80 depicts the deprivation indicators with respect to water and
sewerage services by kada, i.e. being closer to expressing the physical
adequacy of public utilities that ensure these services, and their
ability to meet the needs of the population they are meant to serve.
These indicators, however, do not consider the actual number of
households and the population to be covered by the services. This may be
learned by knowing the distribution of deprived households among the
different kadas, as a percentage of all households falling below the
threshold in Lebanon as a whole.
The most important concentration of deprivation from water and sewerage
services is to be found in the kada of Baabda, where deprived households
represent 25.9 percent of total deprived households in the country;
deprivation being more acute with respect to the need for water for
domestic use (36.6 percent of households), and then potable water (30.9
percent). The next kada in importance in this respect, though with a
considerable difference, is Akkar where deprived households account for
10.3 percent of all deprived households; deprivation being most acute in
the case of sewerage services (21.3 percent).
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