The Parliament ratified a law approving a loan agreement with Agence Française de Développement (AFD) to co-fund a major wastewater project on the Kesrouan coast. The funds, valued at $90 million, will be repaid over a period of 16 years.

The project includes the construction of two treatment plants with a combined capacity to serve 510,000 individuals. Two long drainage pipes extending towards the sea will also be built. A large part of the already existing networks will be rehabilitated. New collection networks will allow access of an additional 100,000 persons to treated wastewater.

The overall value of the two phases of the project is $254 million. The Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) had previously received a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) totaling $90 million. The European Union is tipping in with $13 million and the State with $6.5 million. Expropriation of properties will separately cost $12.7 million.

The second phase, to be funded by the CDR, will focus on completing the rest of the collection networks. This phase costs $40 million.

Only eight percent of the collected wastewater, 300 cubic meters, is nationally treated on a yearly basis.

The infrastructure will be operated by Beirut Mount Lebanon Water Establishment (BMLWE).

The Parliament had already approved wastewater projects in Marjayoun and West Bekaa.