I was walking on the sea shore, people ahead of me; some are fishing, some are sitting, and some are jogging. On my right, the sea; the large boats scaling down gradually till my eyes met the horizon: An endless line that aroused my thoughts, this unrealistic line, is it a boundary of Lebanon? Of the sea? Of the earth? Of the sky? Or does it limit the Lebanese’s international water? Accordingly, and since our water and the international one are merged: how much does Lebanon profit from its water? What is the international water’s relationship to the sea water in Lebanon especially that it has a coast of about 225km? My sight shifting while walking, I could see the Jounieh bay now, and next to it the eastern mountains of Lebanon. I started wondering about that special Lebanese landscape where the mountains meet the shore, where my sight of vision goes up to define the undulated outline created by the peaks of those mountains. This is where rain water is filtered, purified and filled up in bottles just like this one I am holding and that I bought minutes ago.
I was walking by the Quaraoun Lake, in the Bekaa Valley, looking at the quiet scenery around me. Some boats for touring are waiting there, other water activities are available too, and few people were there only taking snapshots of the picturesque view. I was standing next to some rocks; a sort of a dry shore. I could see a blue line marked by the pebbles on the ground. This is where last winter the water level got to and in some coming months will hopefully reach it again. Looking at the lake, my eye filters the image to keep my sight into the one dominating element, Water. It is what you can only see at first. Then I start to realize the various tones of that water. The hitting sun is reflecting a shadow of the eastern Mountains in front of me into the lake. The water has a dark opaque color; I couldn’t see what is underneath it at the shore. It is filled with waste, polluted, with no life in it. Beyond the trivial boats at a halt, the flow of my sight following the water river is blocked by a rough concrete horizontal block called dam linking both the eastern and western Lebanese mountains. My eye now can see the delineation of the enclosing towns around the artificial lake: They profit from this water collection and the electricity produced from it. Isn’t this cove created by the natural leveling of the land? Aren’t they too provided by other natural water sources coming from the hills?
In fact, the sources of water originate from various places, yet meet in the same location. The topography of Lebanon allows for certain connections to take place, not just visually but also physically. The horizon appears not only as a boundary but also as the joinery of two different sources of water. The eastern mountains of Lebanon, with their water flowing, meet with the western mountains water in the horizon, in the sea, in the prevalent source of water that constitutes the lowest level in Lebanon.
I was walking by the Quaraoun Lake, in the Bekaa Valley, looking at the quiet scenery around me. Some boats for touring are waiting there, other water activities are available too, and few people were there only taking snapshots of the picturesque view. I was standing next to some rocks; a sort of a dry shore. I could see a blue line marked by the pebbles on the ground. This is where last winter the water level got to and in some coming months will hopefully reach it again. Looking at the lake, my eye filters the image to keep my sight into the one dominating element, Water. It is what you can only see at first. Then I start to realize the various tones of that water. The hitting sun is reflecting a shadow of the eastern Mountains in front of me into the lake. The water has a dark opaque color; I couldn’t see what is underneath it at the shore. It is filled with waste, polluted, with no life in it. Beyond the trivial boats at a halt, the flow of my sight following the water river is blocked by a rough concrete horizontal block called dam linking both the eastern and western Lebanese mountains. My eye now can see the delineation of the enclosing towns around the artificial lake: They profit from this water collection and the electricity produced from it. Isn’t this cove created by the natural leveling of the land? Aren’t they too provided by other natural water sources coming from the hills?
In fact, the sources of water originate from various places, yet meet in the same location. The topography of Lebanon allows for certain connections to take place, not just visually but also physically. The horizon appears not only as a boundary but also as the joinery of two different sources of water. The eastern mountains of Lebanon, with their water flowing, meet with the western mountains water in the horizon, in the sea, in the prevalent source of water that constitutes the lowest level in Lebanon.
By Nadine Al Harakeh and Massa Ammouri
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