Urban forestry in Lebanon faces a systemic problem of water supply, which requires participatory and multi-sectoral solutions.
Beirut’s largest public park, Horsh Beirut, encapsulates the water supply issues faced by urban green spaces across Lebanon. Regular water supply to the park is non-existent, a situation that has palpable knock-on effects for the urban population and the ecological function of the park in the Lebanese capital. Local residents are coming together in an attempt to change the park’s fortunes by addressing water governance, spatial ownership, and management of resources.
The triangular Horsh Beirut park once spanned over 1.2 million square metres until Israel destroyed much of it during the 1982 invasion. As of 2025, it extends over 330,000 square metres in an area close to Beirut’s city centre, around the diverse residential neighbourhoods of Dahieh, Tariq El Jdideh, and Badaro.
Water in private hands
In a liberalised economy with an informal parallel water sector and a weak public sector, Horsh Beirut’s water supplies come from the bottled water and reservoir industry. This dominant informal market is a result of unmonitored, private-sector-led exploitation of Lebanon’s groundwater resources, according to Jawad Taher, a Lebanese water and development advisor “The water sector in Lebanon is de-facto privatized, heavily relying on private investments. This renders the public sector underfunded, non-resilient and with no expertise for good water governance”
A of groundwater resources in Lebanon revealed a continuous strain on groundwater, perpetuated by weak water governance, unsustainable management, and unmonitored or illegal private excavations. Horsh Beirut suffers as a result. For park-goers this means no functioning restroom facilities and dormant water features, while for vegetation it means insufficient irrigation.
Public green spaces in Lebanon rely on informal and private sources of water because of limited supply through public sector sources. This is compounded by a lack of resources to conduct regular maintenance of facilities, which impacts the park’s natural water sources. Over the years, the two wells in the park have dried due to poor environmental engineering and worsening climate conditions.
“Due to the financial crisis in Lebanon that started in 2019, water supply was further reduced due to diminished funding of the Beirut municipality,” says Mohammad Ayoub, the founder and director of NAHNOO, a non-governmental organisation working on spatial justice in Lebanon. The government was unable to compensate the contractors who ensure water supply operations. In addition, the unstable exchange rate of the Lebanese lira against the United States dollar made the settlement of payments more difficult.
Funding issues
In May 2024, the Beirut municipality was awarded $127,750 from KfW Development Bank, in partnership with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), to rehabilitate the park’s restrooms, sidewalks, and irrigation systems. The implementation of this project was put on hold due to the Israeli aggression in the Lebanese capital between September and November 2024.
At that time, water availability became a pressing issue as displaced families sheltered in the park. While the Beirut Municipality can acquire water in bulk volumes from the Establishment of the Water of Beirut and Mount Lebanon (EBML) at a flat yearly rate, water was never supplied to the park’s facilities. Displaced families bore the cost of filling the water tanks regularly to make bathrooms accessible for the displaced during the two months of the aggression.
Water unavailability in Horsh Beirut illustrates the dysfunction of the Lebanese water sector that impacts urban forests and overall sustainability in cities, and this becomes more urgent in times of emergency and unrest.
In times of climate change
The environmental consequences are detrimental. In a heavily urbanised city like Beirut, green spaces are scattered and scarce due to decades of conflict and privatisation. Their use reduces over the years, and they eventually shrink in size. Water supply is essential in maintaining urban forests because of their instrumental role in the city’s ecological infrastructure.
Parks like Horsh Beirut provide essential ecosystem services such as the filtering of pollutants, cooling the densely populated city, and improving the overall quality of water and soil. Forests have a vital role in conserving water and efficiently using it. Without enough soil moisture, trees would not be able to sufficiently contribute to cooling.
An article published by The Guardian in April 2024 shows that environmental conditions in Beirut continue to deteriorate with air pollution rates increasing. This is further exacerbated by the fact that precipitation in Beirut has been close to zero since the beginning of 2025, a concerning figure that points to a potentially disrupted natural hydrological cycle.
The political economy of water in Lebanon clearly harms urban biospheres and reduces the role of urban forestry in curbing the fast pace of climate change in the Mediterranean region. Social impacts are also observed as communities’ access to green public spaces is constrained. Poor urban forest governance makes parks uncomfortable or unsafe for visitors.
Community action
The complex challenges of water supply and their repercussions on urban forests require communal and sustainable interventions. Local committees are crucial to promote communal sovereignty over public spaces.
With the kick-off of the KfW-funded rehabilitation project in the spring of 2025, the involvement of the local community is a priority. Facilitated by NAHNOO, a Horsh Beirut committee has been formed and meets regularly to plan activities in the park. The committee, whose members are from the local community, is also working on establishing a governance and management mechanism for the park.
Saeed Alameh, lawyer and member of the Horsh committee, tells AMWAJ that the work of the structure and plans that the committee is working on are in their beginning stages. “We are working closely with NAHNOO to open a library inside the park. We also intervene in surrounding green spaces to make sure illegal deforestation are prevented,” he says.
“The Horsh taught me how to be part of the collective, and how to be kind to myself and the natural world around me.” For many others, sovereignty over a public green space means working collectively to improve and maintain it.
Communal involvement and expertise are essential in improving the conditions of an urban forest such as Horsh Beirut. Driven by a sense of ownership, members of the committee coordinating the interventions of different actors in the park: the municipality and governorate of Beirut, private companies providing water, and non-governmental organizations implementing urban development projects.
Mariam C., a young woman who regularly spends time in the park, told AMWAJ that Horsh Beirut is a place where people create mutuality and develop it, recognizing its importance in a city like Beirut.
Find out more about Horsh Beirut in REVOLVE’s photo essay by Stuart Reigeluth and Mariam Younés.