H1 2026 Evaluation
Lebanon Reservoir Transparency
D42Very Poor — Ranked #69 out of 167 countries
weight 30%
weight 20%
weight 15%
weight 13%
weight 10%
weight 8%
weight 5%
Primary source evaluated
Litani River Authority (LRA) — Water Quantity Indicators
https://www.litani.gov.lb/en-us/indicators/indicatorswaterquantityDimension breakdown
Data Availability
20% of total score
The LRA publishes periodic water stock graphs for Qaraoun Lake on its website (litani.gov.lb) comparing multi-year series (2019–2023 documented), and occasional news bulletins citing specific storage figures in Mm³. In January 2026, the lake stood at 65 Mm³ (840.12 m a.s.l.); in April 2026, the LRA announced stocks exceeding 76 Mm³ to justify controlled releases. However, these are narrative press items and static image charts — not structured data feeds. The Ministry of Energy and Water (energyandwater.gov.lb) does not maintain a public reservoir portal. Chabrouh (9 Mm³), Janneh, and all other dams under construction have no public storage data whatsoever. Availability is fragmented, image-based, and non-systematic.
Technical Accessibility
15% of total score
No REST API, no bulk download, no open data portal, no machine-readable format (CSV, JSON, XML) identified at any Lebanese government source. The LRA indicators page returns HTTP 403 to programmatic requests, functioning only through a browser. Water stock updates are published as embedded images or PDF charts in news bulletins. The Ministry of Energy and Water (energyandwater.gov.lb) offers no structured data access. The only machine-readable historical dataset is the CNRS-L satellite reconstruction (geoai.cnrs.edu.lb/qaraaoun), which is a research output, not an official government data service. Lebanon has no open-government data infrastructure for the water sector.
Coverage
30% of total score
Conservative estimate — denominator includes small Litani tributary reservoirs and ancillary impoundments (Brisa ~12 hm³ North Lebanon irrigation, Chabrouh ~8 hm³, Yammouneh ~3 hm³), small private agricultural ponds, and newly commissioning dams (Janneh ~38 hm³, Mseilha ~6 hm³) which lack public storage publication. Methodology v1.3.0 (capacity-weighted). Covered capacity through LRA periodic water-stock publication for Qaraoun is ~220 hm³. A realistic national denominator including Brisa, ancillary small reservoirs and the newly commissioning Janneh once operational reaches approximately 245 hm³. Score = round(100 × 220 / 245) = 90. Qaraoun (dominant reservoir, the country's main operational impoundment) is covered though with caveats around irregular publication; the conservative discount reflects the small tributary reservoir tail and commissioning dams without public data.
Historical Depth
13% of total score
The LRA maintains internal records since Qaraaoun Dam's completion in 1959 and publishes online graphs covering approximately 5 years of comparative series (2019–2023 visible). Annual reports spanning 1960–2018 are listed on the LRA website but are in PDF format, not machine-readable, and their actual availability for download was not confirmable due to server access restrictions. The CNRS-L / GEOAI satellite reconstruction provides 50 years of volume estimates (1973–2025) in an interactive dashboard, but this is academic output rather than official government data. Official machine-readable historical data accessible to the public is effectively absent; press-cited figures go back only a few years.
Update Frequency
10% of total score
No scheduled publication cadence is documented. The LRA publishes water stock graphs and bulletins irregularly — evidenced by drought-crisis news items in 2025 and flood-warning releases in April 2026, but no routine weekly or monthly data feed. The indicators page (indicatorswaterquantity) appears to host static charts updated at indeterminate intervals. The economic collapse since 2019 has further degraded operational capacity: academic research (arXiv:2510.24413) documents that LRA's hydrometric sensor network suffers from frequent malfunctions and inadequate maintenance, making even internal data collection unreliable. There is no real-time or near-real-time public data stream.
Methodological Transparency
8% of total score
The LRA operates an integrated hydrometric network of gauging stations on the Litani and tributaries, and a bathymetric survey of Qaraaoun was conducted in 2013 under the USAID-funded Litani River Basin Management Support (LRBMS) programme to establish an updated level–volume curve. However, no public-facing methodology document, measurement standard, or sensor specification is published on LRA's or MEW's websites. The 2020 National Water Sector Strategy calls for a central database and GIS platform but these aspirational targets are unimplemented for public access. CNRS-L's satellite study (arXiv:2510.24413) notes significant discrepancies between LRA ground measurements and satellite estimates, suggesting unverified data quality with no published QA/QC protocol.
Language and Usability
5% of total score
The LRA website (litani.gov.lb) is fully trilingual: Arabic, English, and French — with the English interface navigable and the water indicators page reachable in English. The Ministry of Energy and Water (energyandwater.gov.lb) also maintains an English section. Press data cited in international outlets (Reuters, Xinhua, Carnegie, L'Orient Today in English) is in English. The language barrier is not an obstacle to the limited data that exists; the primary obstacles are data scarcity and inaccessible formats, not language.
Evaluator notes
Lebanon presents a paradox of institutional presence without functional data transparency. The Litani River Authority (LRA), which operates Qaraaoun reservoir (220 Mm³, ~90% of Lebanon's hydropower), maintains a public-facing website with water quantity indicators and publishes periodic storage graphs — making it clearly superior to conflict-state peers like Syria or Yemen. However, all data is image-only, publication is irregular, the site returns HTTP 403 to programmatic access, no API or download exists, and coverage of all other dams is effectively zero. The LRA's internal hydrometric network is documented as unreliable due to sensor malfunctions and budget constraints stemming from Lebanon's economic collapse since 2019 — one of the most severe sovereign crises globally since the 19th century. An academic CNRS-L satellite reconstruction (geoai.cnrs.edu.lb/qaraaoun) provides 50 years of machine-readable Qaraaoun volume data, but this is a research product, not a government service. The primary source designation goes to the LRA rather than MEW because the LRA is the only institution with any verifiable public water-level publication. MEW's website hosts policy documents and project listings but no operational reservoir data. The 2020 National Water Sector Strategy called for a centralized database and GIS monitoring platform; as of mid-2026, no such public system is operational. Lebanon's Access to Information Law (28/2017) theoretically guarantees access to government data on request, but the practical friction — written requests, personal relationships, political instability — renders it non-functional for transparent data access. The relatively high language_usability score (55) reflects genuine trilingual government infrastructure, but this is the only dimension where Lebanon punches above its tier. Overall, Lebanon scores as a Tier D country: an identifiable primary institution with partial informal data publication, severely degraded by economic and conflict pressures, and with no machine-readable or systematic data infrastructure.
Evaluated by Jaime Delgado · 2026-05-29 · Methodology v1.3.0