In northern Lebanon, families prepare for the next flood

“Every year the floods come. But every year the water is higher and faster than the year before,” Sawsan says.

Floods have hit Akkar for years, especially during the rainy season from November to March. But residents, like Sawsan, say they are getting worse.

Akkar lies on low-lying land in northern Lebanon. It’s near multiple waterways, including the Al-Kabir River. The drainage corridors are narrow. In the communities throughout Akkar, houses and fields sit close to the riverbanks, and farming and fishing are among the main sources of income. The land would be ideal for farming, but it is also prone to flooding.

In January, heavy rains pushed the rivers over their banks. In the middle of the night, water covered the farms, streets, and homes, including Sawsan’s.

“This year the water was so fast, it took only a few minutes before it was over our feet,” says Sawsan’s neighbor, Nadwa, 40.

The water first began seeping through the cracks in Sawsan’s walls, and the mattresses on the floor were quickly underwater. Sawsan and Nadwa both tried to mop the waters out of their homes, but this year the waters rose faster. Before they knew it, the water was above their knees.

Besides the dangers of the rising water, the floodwaters were also filled with human waste, snakes, insects, and more.

“I needed to carry my children, as they could no longer stand in the water,” Nadwa says.

By then, the power was out and the emergency door between the two houses was completely underwater.

“I had to feel around in the darkness to find the emergency door to Sawsan’s house, then dive through it to the other side with my children in my arms,” she says.

Nadwa pulled her children through the emergency door into Sawsan’s house, and from there, they finally got outside.

“The children were in shock and shivering. My youngest girl swallowed a lot of water and was coughing so much. I could not find any words to calm them, and at one point I did not believe they would survive. Diving through the flooded door, I thought my children would all drown.”

Outside, the village was underwater and the fields were destroyed. Because the flood came at night, neighbors used the headlights of tractors to search for people, going from house to house to help those still trapped inside.

Both families survived. But when the water drained, their homes were full of sewage and dead animals. All they could do was try to clean and salvage what was left.

Preparing for the rainy season

Poverty in Lebanon more than tripled between 2012 and 2022, according to the World Bank, and in Akkar it reached as high as 70%. Since 2019, Lebanon has been in a severe economic and financial crisis. Jobs have disappeared and food prices have climbed. The frequent, yearly flooding is damaging farms and incomes. In Akkar, these crises overlap. For people who already have little, there is often no money to recover before the next crisis arrives.

Earlier this year, CARE Lebanon began working to help Akkar prepare for the upcoming rainy season. Lebanon receives about 70% of its annual rainfall during the winter months, with most of it coming from quick, powerful storms. CARE is working with families to repair homes, fix water systems and pipes, restore electricity, and make houses safe and stable again. The goal is to reduce flood damage and protect the farms and jobs families depend on.

“We cleaned water channels in the villages to improve drainage and reduce the potential impact of flooding,” says Jinane Homayra,  a coordinator with CARE Lebanon’s water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and shelter program. “These efforts aim to reduce flood damage to homes and especially to farmland in the area.”

Jinane says the work on the water channels mostly focused on “removing accumulated solid waste, debris, and other obstructions that were restricting water flow along the drainage channels.”

CARE asked community members which parts of the channels worried them most, and they identified areas where drainage cleaning would have the most impact in helping to reduce future flooding. Residents were also consulted in helping repair and rehabilitate their homes. This work usually included repairing or replacing doors and windows, repairing damaged flooring, and fixing leaks and electrical fixtures.

The goal was “enhancing the safety, security, privacy, and dignity of the affected households while providing safer and more adequate living conditions,” Jinane says.

Overall, CARE repaired 31 homes and distributed food parcels, hygiene kits, and dignity kits to families.

For Sawsan and her family, the flood in January was devastating.

“The water was more than a meter high inside the house, and it takes several hours for the water to drain,” she says and holds her hand close to her shoulder to show how high the water stood in her house.

The water that flooded the house left sewage waste throughout the rooms.

“It takes a lot of time to clean the waste out of our rooms,” Sawsan says.

Sawsan’s household has no income. She and her father are not healthy enough to work, and her mother died a few years ago. Her brother, Walid, is a fisherman who lives next to Sawsan and Nadwa’s homes. He shares food and money with Sawsan when he can, but the floods and Lebanon’s economic crisis have hit his work too.

“There is hardly any market to sell fish to. The competition has grown, so we have to lower our prices. A lot more people are driven by poverty to go out fishing,” he says.

CARE finished working on the waterways just before the rainy season begins in November. And Sawsan’s house was one of the homes repaired in the project.

The floods have grown worse each year, but this year, there is hope the cleared channels and repaired homes will reduce the damage.

With the power back on and the sewage smell gone, Sawsan is dreaming again about painting the walls.

“I would paint them brown or beige,” she says. “That was my mother’s favorite color.”

CARE began working in Lebanon in 2006, to help meet the needs of people affected by conflict. CARE first worked through Lebanese partner organizations, and then through our own country office to address the needs of refugees and their host communities.

Lebanon is facing one of the most severe impacts of the growing Middle East crisis. CARE is supporting Lebanese organizations to provide supplies to the displaced. Our team in Lebanon is assisting those who have been displaced by distributing water, ready-to-eat food, and sanitary products.