UN urges Lebanon to implement reforms as extreme poverty grows
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Amid economic meltdown, Lebanon’s medical crisis is a ‘death sentence’ and starvation a ‘growing reality’, the UN says.
The UN estimates that 78 percent of the Lebanese lives below the poverty line - some three million people - with 36 percent of the population living in extreme poverty [File: Hassan Ammar/AP Photo]
By Kareem Chehayeb 1 Oct 2021
Beirut, Lebanon – The United Nations has sounded the alarm on Lebanon’s spiralling economic meltdown .. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/9/26/lebanon-what-life-is-like-in-a-failed-state , calling on the country’s leadership to urgently implement reforms as extreme poverty deepens and starvation becomes a “growing reality” for thousands of people.
“The situation remains a living nightmare for ordinary people, causing unspeakable suffering and distress for the most vulnerable,” United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Najat Rochdi said at a news conference on Friday.
The UN estimates that 78 percent of the Lebanese lives below the poverty line – some three million people – with 36 percent of the population living in extreme poverty. Almost a quarter of the population was not able to meet their “dietary needs” by the end of last year, the UN said.
“Starvation has become a growing reality for thousands of people,” Rochdi said.
“Today, we estimate that more than one million Lebanese need relief assistance to cover their basic needs, including food.”
“We’ve never seen these growing needs among the Lebanese population before,” World Food Programme spokeswoman Rasha Abou Dargham told Al Jazeera. The organisation now provides food assistance to one in four people in the country, with demand for food assistance at an all-time high.
“We’re now the largest [UN] agency in Lebanon – unfortunately.”
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The Lebanese pound has lost 90 percent of its value against the dollar amid Lebanon’s economic meltdown over the past two years.
Buying power has dwindled as millions are locked out of their savings in the country’s stricken banks.
But Rochdi said Lebanon’s fate lies in the political will to make its economy viable again, and that humanitarian interventions are not the solution.
“Humanitarian action is meant to be by nature short-term, temporary and unsustainable,” she said. “It is not meant to solve the root causes and drivers of a crisis.”
[As long as your suffering people get some essential necessary short-term relief]
According to the UN’s Emergency Response Plan for Lebanon for the next year, $383m will be required for them to target 1.1 million people in need. Its programmes span a host of issues, including food security, education, healthcare, sanitation, and child protection.
“The resilient people of Lebanon are now tired of being resilient, of thorny problems that life is throwing at them,” Rochdi said. “They want to simply live in dignity.”
Turkish company cuts off electricity supply to Lebanon by ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIRUT Energy Oct 01, 2021 5:24 pm GMT+3 A Turkish company providing electricity to Lebanon from two power barges off the coast of Beirut said Friday it has stopped supplies after its contract with the Lebanese state electricity company expired. [...] The move by Turkish company Karpowership, which has provided electricity for the past eight years, was expected. It had said earlier that Lebanon's state power company owes Karpowership overdue payments in excess of $100 million. https://www.laprensalatina.com/two-new-lava-streams-emerge-on-la-palma-volcano/
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