Hasbaiya is home to around 8,000 Lebanese residents and over 700 refugees. Amidst the country’s ongoing energy crisis, the town has been grappling with lengthy power outages, forcing the municipality to rely on eleven backup generators for the supply of electricity. With the devaluation of the national currency, however, their operation and maintenance has strained the municipal budget and become an increasingly unaffordable burden on local households. These inadequate public services and consequent degradation of living conditions have resulted in rising intercommunal tensions within Hasbaiya. In response, USAID’s Community Support Program (CSP) installed solar photovoltaic modules and an advanced control system to hybridize the town’s backup electricity infrastructure. In addition, CSP installed a submersible portable single stage sunk pump in the existing water tank to improve the flow of water to the community. CSP has also equipped the pumping station with a chlorine dosing system to improve the quality of water provided to residents. On December 13, 2022, CSP trained four participants from the Hasbaiya Municipality and the South Lebanon Water Establishment-SLWE, on the operation and maintenance, safety measures, and the chlorination environmental compliance of the system, to ensure the sustainability of the provided equipment. CSP also delivered guidelines, tip sheets, and checklists, covering the major information from the training to be used as a supporting reference. CSP will be later providing the participants with personal public safety equipment (PPEs).

“We’ve never learned about the safe operation of the single-stage pump or the chlorination system before. Now we feel more confident, since we have a better understanding of how to use the system safely”. Wassim El Hamra, Hasbaiya water pump station employee.