![]() While the civil war (1975-1990) destroyed much of Beirut’s urban and social fabric in addition to the city itself, the plan to rebuild it tore up what little remained. The city is no stranger to large-scale urban reconstruction. Here, there are lessons to learn from the past. In Beirut, urban space is political how it is reconstructed matters. The stark contrast between Bourj Hammoud’s working-class settlements and downtown Beirut’s glitzy streets and shopping malls exposes another divide – between rich and poor – that exists on a larger scale throughout the city. Sectarian symbols demarcate neighbourhoods, announcing political party affiliation and religious identity, and reproducing a divided society in a divided cityscape. ![]() The question is how to go about it.īeirut’s urban landscape is a mirror of its multicultural society – and of its sectarian and socio-economic divisions. ![]() There is no question that to restore Beirut’s life and Beirutis’ livelihoods, urban reconstruction is imperative. With pharmacies and hospitals lacking basic medicines, the lucky Lebanese with families abroad depend on periodic care packages in the form of suitcases filled with pills and sanitary products. An average two to three hours of electricity a day plunge the country into darkness, as shortages and prohibitive fuel prices silence the whir of the generators on which many rely to make up for Lebanon’s failing electricity provision. The city’s woes have been compounded by the country’s economic collapse and the shortages that flow from it. ![]() The blast not only destroyed vital infrastructure, leaving the port at one fifth of its normal capacity to import wheat and grains and damaging nine out of Beirut’s sixteen operating hospitals, it also razed homes, shuttered businesses and crushed much of the city’s soul. While the new lead judge has requested lifting the immunity of several high-ranking politicians, the elites in power are closing ranks to protect a system that is dysfunctional in all ways but preserving their own interests.Īs for reconstruction, with the political elites responsible for forming a government unable to overcome their inertia, it has fallen to ordinary Lebanese to pick up the pieces of their broken city. A domestic investigation launched days after the explosion has raised more questions about its lack of transparency and political interference than it has provided answers about the blast. Despite government promises to shed light on the causes of the blast and hold those responsible to account, politicians have done little more than trade accusations. One year after the port explosion shattered Beirut’s centre, the search for accountability is also stalling. While private companies from various countries have expressed their interest in rebuilding Beirut’s port, Lebanon’s political, economic and financial collapse does not make it a welcome investment environment for private-sector enterprises. The response framework and financing strategy launched by the World Bank, European Union and UN in December 2020 demands substantial systemic change and a government to deliver on recovery and reconstruction – both of which appear a distant hope. International institutions are unwilling to disburse funds beyond immediate humanitarian relief and recovery needs without meaningful political reform. Without a government to formulate a coherent strategy or the political will to form one, any initiative by the Lebanese state to reconstruct Beirut or its port is unthinkable. These three challenges – governance, accountability and reconstruction – must be tackled together if the city and the country are to pull themselves out of their morass.įor now, the immense and immediate storm of economic collapse, hyperinflation and political deadlock that Lebanon faces dwarfs all other issues. Against this backdrop, Beirut’s reconstruction has not meaningfully progressed, beyond a handful of proposals from outside actors who seem to have no clear sense of the city’s needs. Mechanisms to create some measure of accountability for the devastating incident are foundering. A nine-month effort by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri to form a government collapsed in mid-July, and the lack of a functioning government has impeded efforts to negotiate a much-needed International Monetary Fund stabilisation program. The country faces an economic crisis that the World Bank describes as one of the worst in modern history. One year later, the broken glass has been swept off Beirut’s streets, but little else has been fixed. It decimated livelihoods, tore the city’s social fabric and broke whatever tenuous trust people still had in the political elite. The glass carpeting the streets of central Beirut on 4 August 2020 was not the only thing the port blast shattered.
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