Water and Sewerage

The availability of water for drinking and domestic use, and of sewerage services, are considered as basic indicators for gauging the level of human development in a world tending rapidly towards urbanization. The satisfaction of these needs is taken for granted in today's world. The measurement of relevant indicators is viewed as a necessity for all countries, because they are considered to express the extent of satisfaction of relatively constant needs overtime. However, certain aspects may be accorded more importance than others, such as disparities in providing these services to different regions or segments of the population, the quality of the services, or their environmental implications. Water and sewerage services are usually services provided by the public sector. In other words, they are supposed to be made available to all citizens irrespective of the level of their income, place of residence, their social status or economic means. This explains the absence of large disparities in the level of satisfaction of these needs between different categories of the population in Lebanon and, hence, the relatively weak correlation between the living conditions index and the water and sewerage index. It is also worth noting that the three indicators composing the index are relatively independent of each other. The present chapter is concerned with the satisfaction of the minimum basic needs of individuals and households for water and sewerage in terms of connection to the water network, availability of potable water from the network as a minimum, and of sewers or septic tanks for disposing of human secretions.

A. Construction of the Index and its Limitations B. Detailed Data C. Geographical Distribution of the Water and Sewerage Index by Kada