With water sources increasingly scarce due to crumbling resources and contamination, experts say it is time to look at an alternative: rain. "I think we should use rain water," American University of Beirut (AUB) professor May Jurdi says.

Dec. 28, 2006- "Rain harvesting is not new; in Southern Lebanon they collect water in surface storage containers and use it. We have a high intensity of rain and much of our potential water is being lost."

Water experts expect a major water crisis by 2025 at the latest if Lebanon doesn't revamp its water management.

Jurdi complains that the Environment Ministry is creating a national plan for managing water but that rainwater does not appear to be included.

"The problem is not just a [national] plan but implementing it and sustaining what has developed. This is the weak link in the chain," Jurdi said.

AUB professor Nadim Fa-rajalla thinks that Lebanon needs to get with the times and new technologies.

"We are in bad shape in terms of management and vision," he said. "Our concepts are not modern. We don't have a vision about how best to use the water. Thinking has evolved a lot in the past years. What we once though was good - building dams - has changed. We should think differently; we need to look at alternative forms of water," like wadis - dry riverbeds that act as water basins when it rains.

Farajalla has been advocating the use of wadis, where water can be used by the agricultural sector, which consumes 80 percent of Lebanon's water reserves, leaving groundwater solely for drinking.

According to a book published by the general director of Hydraulic and Electric Resources at the Energy and Water Ministry, Fadi Comair - domestic water demand is 380 million cubic meters (mcm) a year. Agriculture uses 887 mcm and industry, 140 mcm a year.

"Our wadis could offer us 750 mcm a year," Farajalla said. "I suggest we use them."

Groundwater is at risk due to improper management.

Leaking water-pipe networks pose a further problem to Lebanon's mismanaged water resources. Most countries have 10-15 percent water loss due to leaking pipe systems. The greater Beirut area has a 40 percent leakage rate and the nationwide rate is 35 percent.

"The major threat for groundwater is fecal contamination and nitrates from fertilizers," said Jurdi.

"This is a problem in Lebanon as we don't have a national plan for managing hazardous waste," he adds. "The major challenge is to treat these wastes before they are dumped" on soil and in rivers.

Unfortunately, Lebanon's rivers often serve as dumping sites for industries and for municipalities' human waste.

Trace metals from industrial waste seep into the sediment of riverbeds, which may cause long-term health defects.  Lebanon's rivers are not monitored and dumping is rampant. Rivers are rendered too contaminated to use as drinking water and for agricultural, domestic and industrial purposes.

Farajalla believes the main problem isn't industrial waste, but human waste from sewage pipes that discharge into rivers.

"Most of our rivers, if not all, suffer from sewage discharge," Farajalla says. "Most municipalities dump their sewage into the sewers as we don't have waste-water treatment plants. In Lebanon there are 44 that have been constructed, but maybe four are operational, and two operate roughly 10 percent of the time. Beirut does not have any wastewater treatment plants."