Lebanonwire, February 28, 2003

The Daily Star

Nafez Kawas and Hanna Khoury
Daily Star correspondents

The government endorsed LL10 billion to cover damage of recent storms that have rocked the country, as infrastructure needs dominated the weekly Cabinet meeting agenda.
The Higher Relief Committee will receive the funds to take any measures to deal with the after-effects of the storms, which are believed to have caused millions of dollars in damages to roads, farms, property and livestock.
According to Information Minister Ghazi Aridi, ministers agreed to remove “in urgent fashion” illegal construction along the country’s rivers, which have sprung up in similar fashion to the country’s seafront.
The rains have flooded or washed away an unknown number of establishments set up illegally in various river areas.
But the ministers, Aridi said, rejected the idea of reaching “settlements” with violaters and defended the government’s handling of the crisis.
The figure of LL10 billion could be increased in the future, the minister told reporters after the session.
The Cabinet also tasked the Public Works Ministry with surveying the infrastructure situation regarding bridges and construction along river basins, to determine whether they were built according to specifications.
The recent heavy rains have, in addition to causing landslides and flooding, seen cracks spring up on roads around the country, making some impassable.
The Energy and Water Ministry, meanwhile, was asked to complete and present a 10-year plan to build dams to the Cabinet at its meeting next week. It was also asked to clean up river basins and do away with any violations of state property.
In other business, Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares was named to head a ministerial committee that will look into establishing a center in Beirut to foster the growth of “modern electronic technologies.” The Cabinet gave the committee 15 days to present its findings.
But criticism of the government’s response to the crisis continued, with former Premier Omar Karami saying the storm had been exaggerated by the media.
Karami described the last few weeks as a “normal” winter in Lebanon, for people with memories long enough.
Karami, who made the comments during a meeting with the Maronite League, also said that the country had tried several models of government but none had worked, suggesting that their failure was due to an imbalance between Christian and Muslim representation.
Lebanon is not broke, he added, but its politicians are, “because they have failed to find the right solution to administrative corruption.”
Jbeil MP Abbas Hashem on Thursday blamed the widespread storm damage on the authorities’ failure to grapple with day-to-day problems.
Speaking in Bkirki, after conferring with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, Hashem said that the real catastrophe was not the one caused by nature, but the one caused by “accumulated (governmental) neglect which has led to a massive national debt and an almost total absence of infrastructure.”
Hashem stressed that the real catastrophe was “the rulers’ lack of moral standards from 1992 until today.”
The MP praised Speaker Nabih Berri’s approach to the issue of the state’s failure to deal with the storm damage.
Berri claimed that the government was warned two months ago about the the Litani River’s water level, and could have prevented the extensive flooding the storms brought.
Speaking in Parliament Wednesday, Berri had said that no matter how officials describe the storm as severe, this “doesn’t absolve them.”
Referring to some politicians’ claims that the damages caused by the river were a result of the Finance Ministry’s failure to make part-time and volunteer Civil Defense staff permanent, Hashem said that he had cautioned, during the budget debate, against the ministry being used as “a weapon in the hands of a group of people.”
Hashem accused Finance Minister Fouad Siniora of allocating budget funds on the basis of “personal likes and dislikes.”
The MP called for bringing the government to take responsibility for the mishandling of the weather emergency.
“There is no longer a government to be brought to account,” Hashem said, claiming that the government was “dead” and has “lost its credibility to lead society.”
Meanwhile, former Beirut MP Tammam Salam said that the government did not enjoy the trust of the people.
He said President Emile Lahoud, Speaker Nabih Berri Premier Rafik Hariri and must “stop monopolizing the decision-making process on behalf of the Cabinet.”

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