projects some are for agricultural irrigation and some for the generation of electric power.

The Qasimiyya project belongs in the series of irrigation projects and constitutes the final, coastal part — the one carried out up to now.

The Political Importance of the Litani Projects

There are rivers that are shared between two states or more, and their equipping requires the conclusion of international agreements for the division of the waters in proportion to the lands and the natural possibilities. Hence arises the political role that results from a river's crossing the territories of different states. By way of example we take up a question of great importance: the division of the waters of the Euphrates river between Syria and Iraq. It has appeared that the regulation of the exploitation of the waters on an international basis depends to some extent on the speed of completing the projects in each of the two countries — meaning that every project now estab-lished on the Euphrates will be a firm right to the waters used by means of it; and there is no doubt that this matter is a spur to the activity of the two states, urging them to hasten to establish joint projects that guarantee a just division of the waters between the two countries.

So too the Orontes river: in its upper part it rises abundantly in Lebanon, and its waters pour across the Syrian frontier into the Lake of Homs, from which branches out the network of canals irrigating the Homs–Hama plain.

If Syria wishes to widen the compass of irrigation in her lands, that will lead to the use of new waters from the waters of the Orontes, and this requires that the two states agree upon a just division of the waters between them, one that preserves to Lebanon its right to the use of a part of them.

The Litani river is not shared between two states: it lies

entirely in the soil of Lebanon, and the waters that feed it come to it entirely from the sky of Lebanon. The projects intended for the equip-ping of the Litani river likewise lie all in the soil of Lebanon. And the needs of Lebanon absorb the river's entire production, whether on the agricultural side, which needs irrigation water, or on the industrial side, which needs electric power. The Litani river, then, has no political role, because we have no partner in the river's waters, and our exploitation of this wealth depends upon the speed of realizing the equipment projects, and does not depend upon the conclusion of international agreements at all.

Moreover, the equipping of the

Litani benefits none but Lebanon: none of its production will exceed our needs — indeed it will hardly suffice to cover these needs in the twenty-five years to come; and by needs I mean what is necessary for the development of Lebanese agriculture and industry.

We conclude by saying that there is no political problem standing in the way of the realization of the Litani projects. The river, from its source to its mouth, is the property of a state of absolute sovereignty within its borders, disputed by no rival; it is she who possesses the right of disposal over the river's wealth, and it is absurd talk to speak of a direct ben-efit to any other than Lebanon from the equipping of the Litani river.

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