Home Economics & PolicyA dangerous source

A dangerous source

by Matt Nash

In the dead of a crisp November night, the elite unit of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces prepared to pounce. Their target? An unlicensed neighborhood water distributor at the southern edge of Beirut’s Hamra district. Acting on a tip from public health minister Wael Abou Faour, the police stormed the distributor’s ad hoc basement factory, shutting off pipes, rounding up suspects and smashing open water cooler jugs as though they were barrels of booze in Prohibition era USA. Over the next few days, this scene was repeated hundreds of times in the capital’s various neighborhoods, as well as in villages and cities across the country. The battle for safe, regularly tested drinking water had begun. [pullquote]A significant number of Lebanese regularly drink water that has been filtered though never tested for safety[/pullquote] Don’t remember reading about this crackdown in the news? That’s because it didn’t happen. While Abou Faour did threaten

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