arab open university faculty of business ...aou.edu.lb/onlineservices/preface/1126.pdftremendous...

ARAB OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF BUSINESS STUDIES

Lebanon Branch

Managing Complexity: a systems approach

FINAL PROJECT

Project title

“Waste of Lebanese Water”

Student name Moussa Fleyfel

Supervisor: Dr. Saher Al-annan

Spring 2010

T306B_Final Project_007387_Moussa A. Fleyfel_S215

FBS‐PT3 F O R M

Faculty of Business Studies TMA Cover Sheet Lebanon Branch

Second □ First Semester 2009 - 2010 Academic Year

2 □ 1 TMA No. T306B Course No.

Student Information (to be completed by the student)

Moussa Fleyfel Student Name

215 Section No. 007387 Student No.

[email protected] E-Mail

I hereby certify that the work presented in this TMA is my own and is not copied from any source.

…05... / …05…. / 2010 Date of Submission …………………………………… Signature

Q3 Q2 Q1 Questions Total

20 10 70 Weight Allocated Marks

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Table of content:

Acknowledgments and Dedication........................................................................................ 4 Abstract.................................................................................................................................. 5 Chapter I. The “Waste of the Lebanese water” ..................................................................... 6

Objective of this project: ................................................................................................. 10 Numbers and facts: .......................................................................................................... 11 The Lebanese-Israeli conflicts:........................................................................................ 13

The Israeli water gap ................................................................................................... 13 Lebanese waters to the Israeli strategy ........................................................................ 13 “The Litany River” ...................................................................................................... 14

Chapter II. Tutor report ....................................................................................................... 15

The Hard versus the Soft System Method....................................................................... 19 The MBTI and Ethicality statement ................................................................................ 25

Chapter 3. Client report ....................................................................................................... 27 Chapter 4. The Project Log.................................................................................................. 32 List of References:............................................................................................................... 34

Acknowledgments and Dedication

This project was a result of weeks of hard work, and it couldn’t be possible without the

tremendous effort of Dr. Saher Al-Anan, his encouragement and insightful advice each

step, and the beneficial advices I will take into consideration in my career and future life.

Also I would like to dedicate this project for all my tutors, and specially: Dr. Saher Al-

Anan, Mrs. Yara Abdalah, Mr. Fouad Arnaout and Dr. Rima Rouhana.

And I appreciate their support and inspiration during all the past years.


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Abstract

“Lebanon, a Middle Eastern country that considered from the richest

freshwater container, that by year 2025 The UN will list it ‘acute water

scarcity’.”

“Waste of the Lebanese water” is an important issue I took into consideration and build my whole

project on. Water considers the heart of Lebanon and affects on the social, economical and

environmental factors, Also the huge importance about the negative effects on health. The

increasing impact of Wasting Lebanese freshwater underlines the need of start taking action and

set several solutions that I found feasible in order to decrease this problem.

This is why in my senior project I discussed the main reason causing the water wasting (such as

the misuse of water, the pollution and garbage and the government corruption), as well going

throw into the influence on our society and several more aspects. My project also will discuss the

main possible solutions and my recommendation that lay at the top of my system of interest, plus

the linkage between the role of government to help in saving this situation and the whole

community and private sector with the learning institutes and Media.

During all the time that I’ve been working on this mess I couldn’t find uniform numbers about the

fact of Lebanese water, I did found numbers and statistic about some rivers and water fall and

sometimes it conflict between each source, in addition, there isn’t real official statistic about

Lebanon since 1996 and few for 2000 and 10 years from 2000 till now makes big different and

that’s why I couldn’t rely on the HSM and had to replace it with the SSM, by this gap the other one

was by the short period, 5 weeks isn’t enough for this unstructured situation.

At the end, regard to T205 and T306 courses that made my path clear, and the learning process,

and the process of mess analyses and learning system, and in order to illustrate my points I used

several diagramming such as: Rich picture, Spray diagram, multi-cause diagram, the Control loop

and the Transformation process.


Cha pter I. The “Waste of the Lebanese water”

“Lebanon, a Middle Eastern country that considered from the

richest freshwater container, that by year 2025 The UN will list it

‘acute water scarcity’.” How is that?

Since the beginning of the human kind and along the time and with all the studies and

researches and the sciences, the water was having major importance along with the air, a

reason for survival for human being, animals and the whole environment.

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Fresh Drinking water is one of the most precious natural resources in the world but they do

not constitute only 1 percent of the total water on Earth. And its renewed sources of fresh

water always thanks to the snow and rain.


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“Water Wasting”, it’s not a description for the project or even a title, it is A major situation

that we have to live with our daily life and unstructured situation specially in Lebanon,

unfortunately A country like Lebanon is specialized with its richness of the water and

rivers (include 15 rivers, 3 internal and 12 coastal) and fountains, wells and underground

water and never forget the high rate rain falls (9200 Mm yearly). It supports our cities and

towns with drinking water, in addition another source of water is the ground water that

comes from the rain and uses for planting and drinking. Accordingly the main Problem is

the huge waste of water in several ways (such as the inefficient use and waste in the seas,

the pollutant of the underground water, lack of access to the groundwater and many more).

The several kind of wastes and the sequential causes and because it’s so many resulted

huge influences on the human kind and its environmental aspect and boundaries, all these

issues made the problem unclear and unbounded which lead to misunderstanding in the

community and less information lead to misuses and ignorance of using the water.

There is no one common understanding to the people for this mess, by this I mean that: A

1st party (average people and Labours) thinks that there isn’t any threats about the reality of

Lebanon water and keep using the water in the same high rate without trying to reduce

water use (and they are considered about more than 50% of the citizens)

The 2nd party (the poor people) who lives in the suburbs, country and villages doesn’t have

any idea about the situation but can’t figure the main problem because they are too busy

searching for Clean Drinking Water.

The 3rd party (educational level), have information and more knowledge about the facts of

the wastes and most of the issues but the big strike that a percentage of these group doesn’t

seek fighting for the case, and if they even want, the government will not cooperate

because of its corruption.

The influence is more than we can ever imagine, as for the environmental side it affects

negatively on the nature balance and causes of “Weather climate changes”, many animals

species will diminish, and the other survivor will have a decreasing in numbers, some

people used to say “ that Earth balance it self’s and any error happens the earth will

handle it and become normal again” well this statement might be true if there isn’t any

man-kind on earth, but now we’re reaching to 6.5 billion person on earth, and this huge


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number of people consumes water daily for drinking, cleaning, working and especially

POLLUTING !

For instance we cannot ignore that many domestic solid waste, industrial, medical

and agricultural pesticides are used heavily and pollute the water. And approximately the

amount of dirty water that mixes with the surface water and groundwater 38100 cubic

meters. the scientific studies focuses that 80 percent of water resources starting from the

surface and down to a height of 1400 meters are susceptible to contamination, especially

after the shift most of the rivers a haven of solid wastes of all types.

I have certain beliefs that this problem affects the whole Lebanese community and

negatively will reflect on us in far and near future, as we learn earlier about the

Sustainable Development and considering the way of living and open opportunities for

the next generation to live and have ability to use our renewable and non-renewable

resources.

“The problem of water wasn’t a one day new incident, but is an old problem in the life of

nations, given their importance in economic stability and growth and development. And the

so-called Fertile Crescent, which is inferred from its name as a region that is a good basis

for agriculture and water making it a center of cultural and grew it into a zone for a long

strip of conflict.”

The factors affecting the nature of water consumption as a result of indiscriminate and

missing from the day of the stock water will push the States to make this urgent need in

any of the available means and whatever the price.

According to the ESCWA’s statistics:


“Water will therefore constitute a single basic conflict in the region in the near future.”

According to Ms. Eliane Boutros, that the Lebanese are suffering a shortage in the amount

of water available for use and deterioration in quality due to poor management of water

resources, wasting more than half of 2600 million cubic meters of surface water and

groundwater that can be exploited. Not to mention the pollution of fresh water streams in

wastewater, and drainage wells it drills homes and institutions and hospitals, they scavenge

for food sewage with drinking water.

The share of the individual in Lebanon of water during the fifty years between 1955 and

2005 is less than one third (from 900 cubic meters to 300 cubic meters per year).

What can we do?

- A detailed study of water sources and potential development, and delivery of clean water

to all people as a fundamental right. Lebanon is today uses less than half the amount of

water available, and the remainder going in vain.

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- Collect rainwater in dams and ponds is mountainous, and provide technical assistance to

collect water for the winter surfaces, in the villages as in cities, where they can be

converted to thousands of artesian wells dug along the coast, in order to replenish and

reduce salinity. It should be noted that most of these wells become salty and unfit for use

and to which rain water because the Earth's natural covered became rare after the asphalt

and concrete buildings.

- Stop the waste of water and prevent sources of pollution, by way of refurbishment,

modernization and maintenance.

- Wastewater treatment using appropriate techniques friendly to the environment, at the

village level and at home, and not through the central plants only. And the use of

wastewater reuse in irrigation of city parks and villages.

- Rationalization of water use in public places and private, through awareness campaigns

and guidance, and encourage the use of sanitary tools that consume less water by reducing

taxes on them.

Objective of this project:

The main Object of this project can be considered into three main parts, first by inform of

the fact of wasting the Water, second the causes of it and finally the influence on us as

human beings and what can be solved. Accordingly, the large scale of citizens cannot

define the whole reasons and the important of Water and wasting it, by this project

illustration is the whole Idea and the most obvious solution for it.

It aims to illustrate the Water problem in Lebanon and having awareness thoughts and

actions about the situation and illustrate all the obstacles and problems, and find a way to

reduce it (by the local, regional schools, Media…). In addition by using the log frame and

deciding what system to use deal with it efficiently and reach our goals.


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Numbers and facts:

80%:

Of The citizens of third world diseases caused by contaminated water

10 000 000 Person: Dies yearly because of the contaminated water

40 000 Child: Dies DAILY because of the results of water shortages or contamination

80 countries in the world with 40 percent of the population are threatened by water shortages or contaminated.

According to Elias Kattar in the Al-balad news’s paper who said, “Lebanon's Water

Palace" story that has not known that Lebanon is one of the richest countries in the Middle

East, natural water, which has made the eyes of the world and neighboring countries are

kept on the wealth that they are not supposed to die and some of the deadly practice.”

“Al Makmel” mountain records with 1500 Mm yearly, and although, the Lebanese people

still buying the drinking water from the market. Sadly that the real fact is water are around

us plenty enough not for year or two, but for 51 more year.

-Accordingly many studies stated that Lebanon will reach to a dark thirst level because of

the Misuse of the Lebanese people and government to the water and negligence by either a

waste or pollution, Dr. Nabilkhalifa and after a study and research confirmed that “Ibrahim

River” Drag more than 508 million meter cubic yearly but the benefits is 0.54% about 2.7

million cubic meter, and the rest of it goes as a waste (505.3 million).

-A study for the Un in the middle 2000’s show’s that the Quota allocated to the Lebanese

citizens is about 1463 million meter cubic but the benefits is 44% of it (which is mean

643.7 million only).

-Records show that The Rain Falls in Lebanon is (9200 Mm yearly) which is the First in

the Middle East then Sudan with (5000 Mm).

-Several studies show that there is 300 million cubic meter of water deficit, Dr. khalifa

claims that there is overload of water. And stating that some people use the underground

water because the rain falls goes wastes in the seas so they use the well in the summer. But

the more dangerous from using all these wells till it get dry is polluting it because the lack

of the network of sewerage and the leaks of it also.

-Many Arabic countries and specially the gulf area apply the desalination process in order

to have A Clear Drinking water because the lack of rivers and underground waters, The

good things that we don’t need to do this because the resources of the water is plenty and


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backup of Drinking water for years ahead from now on one condition: the Good investing

of it.

-Lebanon have a good source of underground water that called "S" 12, its 12 rivers that

runs under the ground in the Koura, and Shakkaabout the way to one of the largest springs

and the richest in the middle east.

“AlQuaraon” lake consider from the richest water resources, it pump about 700 million

cubic meter of water yearly, which is enough to satisfy the need of water for more of the

half country. Another problem is “Israeli ambitions and it greed about having the Lebanese

south water, and this is known from the last 2 decades (the Israeli invading and steering the

direction of the water to the Israeli north and stealing the documentation for the Quaraon

lake and so on …

The water pollution affects negatively on the human body and his health, according to Dr.

Elie Estphan that water pollution by bacteria leads to a certain bacterial diseases in the

human body, but in case of water pollution consists of toxins in the body and disease

harmful toxins." In addition "There are no certain bacteria. That May cause typhoid,

hepatitis or perhaps other diseases, which vary depending on the person who gets the

disease and health condition in general."

According to Dr. Elie Estphan, who focus that "these bacteria are often considered more

present in" his intestine and have its greatest impact on the digestive system. "As for the

seriousness of the disease and treatment confirms Estphan that the" treatment is quick and

simple in most cases, however, associated with rapid diagnosis and the patient health. “But

unfortunately, most of the groundwater and wells are contaminated in Lebanon and this is

shown by international studies."


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The Lebanese-Israeli conflicts:

The Israeli water gap The north Israeli towns’ uses to depend on the Tabaraya lake for satisfying its need of fresh

water, and these towns until the year 2000 was consuming its quarter amount of needs

from the Lebanese rivers especially of the Litani River and Wazzani River. In light of the

increasing needs of the Israeli freshwater suitable for agriculture, industry and human

consumption, in a time when the gap of water Israeli more than one billion cubic meters, as

already stated, it is clear that control over these areas serves not only the security side and

the Israeli desire in a pocket of a security barrier protects from the resistance.

Lebanese waters to the Israeli strategy The Israeli ambitions in Lebanon's water is not the result of the certain wars now between

Israel and Resistance, not even the result of the last two decades, but a historic coverts

have been in existence before the establishment of the State of Israel, in the letter, signed

by Chaim Weizmann on behalf of the Zionist movement in 1919 and addressed to British

Prime Minister David Lloyd, pointed out Weizman explicitly to Israel's need to fill part of

the needs of the northern regions depending on the Lebanese water, wrote: "... We believe

it is necessary to include the northern border of Palestine easy Litani River for a distance of

25 miles and the western slopes and southern Mount Hermon, and therefore need our areas

north of the water for agriculture, industry and energy."

When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 was the first work they did when they arrived at

Lake Qaraoun is to capture all data and hydrological information from the dam and the

river and sent to Israel.

And after the state of Israel has made in 1965 to destroy the project to divert the course of

the Hasbani River and Wazzani that it is implemented in accordance with the decision of

the Arab summit held in Cairo in 1964 and the judge to "deal with Israel in its attempts to

draw water from the Jordan River to the Negev Desert and through the Arab States

(Lebanon, Syria and Jordan) control on the tributaries of the Jordan River and the transfer


of these tributaries under the protection of military command and a unified Arab, "was

justified by Golda Meir, then Israeli prime minister saying that the destruction of water for

Israel is a blood in the veins.

Again, when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978 and she immediately control the Wazzani

River, which feeds the Jordan River, as well as the development of pumps and pipes to

deliver water from the Hasbani River to the north of Israel.

That's for the Hasbani River and Wazzani As for the Litani River, which is described as

water experts in Lebanon, the backbone of the water development was hindered by Israel

of all projects aimed to benefit from it, either by cutting funds or to prevent the

implementation of armed force.

At the year 2000, in October israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon threatened with war on

Lebanon due to the implementation of the project of drawing water Wazzani River (A part

of the Hasbani River, which provides between 20-25% of the waters of Lake Tiberias) to

the villages and towns liberated in southern Lebanon (Aati, 2006).

“The Litany River”

“General and widespread concern in Lebanon about water reflects the country’s

insecurity about perceived and real threats to its sovereignty over water resources, and

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this very attitude may affect the quality of water data collected, analyzed, and published.

This chapter surveys existing water-related data, describes Lebanon’s water balance, and

outlines some of the reasons behind the deficiencies and discrepancies in the available

hydrological data. One of this chapter’s major findings is that there is a severe dearth of

water data in Lebanon. This makes it difficult to manage water resources adequately in the

present and to make meaningful projections into the future about potential use and

availability of water. In the concluding section, a number of recommendations are made to

help rectify the problem. (Mr. Hussein Amery).

Chapter II. Tutor report


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As a system practitioner, my main purpose in this report is to discuss this messy situation

(Wasting the Lebanese freshwater) from all its aspect and different perspectives, along

with studying its causes, influences and my recommendation and solution without ignoring

the importance of the community and its assistant and the cooperation of state.

I’ve chosen this Unstructured situation, because it’s important for the Lebanese citizens

and the new generations because this mess is getting complex in an increasing way, and

neglecting it will cause huge negative influence, How we seek new resources of

Freshwater while we have overload in underground water and surface ?

In the beginning and as system Practitioner I’ll go through the systemic learning Cycle

BECM in order to deal with this complex situation.

In addition, I’ll illustrate this complexity through several tools and methods ’from T205

and T306 Courses and never forget the diagramming and it’s important, also The, BECM,

and mainly SSM that is used as a guiding process for analyzing stakeholders perception of

the problem (mode 2). It is helpful to recognize different system levels to work out how to

facilitate the interactions, where Systems of interest are not static; they change with time

and with the observer choice.


Figure 1. A Multi-cause diagram illustrating the water wasting in Lebanon.

Values: wasting Lebanese water is considered from the important problem we face

in the Lebanese society and it affects on us in general as for individuals and groups. By

solving this problem we reach a high level of securing our health now and for the future.

Beliefs: in the case of wasting the Lebanese freshwater, I belief that the water is a

precious gift from GOD we have to enjoy it and protect it.

Circumstances: Several circumstances due in the case of water wasting, such as:

the lake in the internal home pipes, the old rusty sewages network, the misuse of water in

home, Polluting the surface and underground water, the corruption in the responsible team

that hired for water projects and building dams, the neglecting of the importance of water..

Al these reasons and circumstances lead to this mess and making it more difficult and

bigger and leave the Lebanese citizens in huge threats.

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A practitioner is a juggler trying to keep a number of balls in the air.

Metaphor of the juggler (BECM Balls)

• B. Being a practitioner with a particular tradition of understanding.

• E. Engaging with the “Real World” situation.

• C. Contextualizing a particular approach to a new situation (how a practitioner puts

particular approach into context)

• M. Managing the complexity of the situation.

In the first ball (B), being systematically aware from the variety of consequences of such

topic, where it leads to a range of changes causing harsh consequences on the economy &

the society of Lebanon as a whole.

During the Being stage I’ll draw a “spray Diagram“that illustrate the causes and effects in

this complex to improve this stage.

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Figure 2. A spray diagram showing the causes and influences of “the waste of Lebanese water” mess.

The Hard versus the Soft System Method

The Hard System Method emphasize scientific approach to problem solving rather than

intuition or experience ,also the core of hard system thinking is mathematical ,in addition it

can define the problem easily ,Hard system is based on an engineering perspective which

does not have universal application to all types of problem.

And in this case it’s hard to apply, because of several reasons, such there isn’t real statistic

about the general idea and Lebanese fact of water status, and last statistic was made in

1996 and in 2000 (and it was partial not whole numbers)

But the main weaknesses of the Hard System thinking and practice can be listed to the

following: HSM concerns feasibility studies, systems investigation and analysis, systems

design, etc.

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So that’s why I decided to use the SSM method, as for my project I believe that the SSM

is most suitable Method I can use in order to manage that complexity (Wasting the

Lebanese freshwater), although the objective and main problem is known but in further

more understanding it will be applied perfectly on the SSM, because using the HSM is not

recommended because of the mathematical issue that are hidden and unknown and other

features, here I’ll illustrate its idea: The Soft System Method does not assume that

problems are out there in the world and clear, because different people may see different

problem from same situation. In addition the SSM consider a strong method at early stages,

it’s a systemic approach to problem solving because it makes serious use of systems

concepts but it can applied systematically as it can be seen as a comprising a number

stages). SSM is a process of inquiry with a number of distinct stages, passage through

which is usually iterative rather than linear. It explores the possibilities for organizational

learning and progress in problem situations that are neglected by the HSM.

Now we move to the E Ball (the Engaging Ball), and this is the most important and crucial

one, it’s about engagement that can be experienced as messy and complex (Water

Wasting), in a situation where there has been a failure or some unintended consequences.

Now Engaging with the Soft System Method:

Stage 1: Definition of the Messy situation:

The messy situation that I’m discussing, is about the wasting the Lebanese water, a

resource of survive, agriculture, domestic use and manufacturing, its an unbounded

situation and there are several reasons for causing this mess, but mainly ”the misuse of

water by the people and the lack of government activity and corruption in what related to

the ignorance and neglecting, in addition the pollution and harming the underwater and old

ways of agriculture…” also I provided of the influence as a whole, and the

recommendations that can be considered.

Stage 2: Reflection upon the rich picture

The rich picture above shows the whole situation at one snap shot, it shows us the lack of

government’s action, the waste by the neglecting and ignorance and misuse of the people,

also the old ways of agriculture and finally the Israeli grudge of the Lebanese water.

Unfortunately there are also a lot of hidden causes I explained before, but it’s hard to draw

because of the nature of graphics area. During the process of drawing this rich picture there


were several traps I had to avoid in order to have an efficient system practitioner ‘s rich

picture, and these trap are: Representing the problem not the situation, The impoverished

rich picture, the Interpretation, structure and analysis, the Words and wordiness and the

final version trap.

Figure 3. A rich picture describing the whole situation of wasting water.

Stage 3: Relevant system and Root definition

Relevant systems:

These can be summarized to the following:

• providing more knowledge and information about the efficient use of water

• Awareness and informing about the situation for better understanding.

• Building Dams and several kind of project that helps in containing water and

storage huge amount for needs.

• Drip irrigation, important thing for consuming small amount of water with the same

affect

• non-pollutant pesticides in order to protect the underground water

• Doing some researches and between ground layer and studies.

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Roots Definition:

Wasting the Lebanese water is a major problem that we face in the mean time, it’s started

sequentially and now is reaching a high level of unbounded situation, it affects us as

Lebanese citizen from the health, work, agriculture, and most important A reason to

survive, without forgetting the “Sustainable development” issue, for our generation and the

upcoming. Several reasons like (ignorance, misuse, lake and corruption of the state, old

sewages network...) cause this problem and we should do something about it!

To insure my Root definition is clear and to support it I’ll apply the CATWOE checklist to

check whether my approach is right.

*Customers: Every single Lebanese citizen living on this country and drink from its water,

and have a threats of the pollutant water in the mean time and will face Thirst in the future

because of the lack of Freshwater.

*Actors: first, the Government by its internal corruption and lack of projects and Dam have

in order to provide each city with its need of water, also Paralysis of the government in the

case of alarming people about the mess we ‘re facing! Another actors are the private sector

and schools, through education and awareness among the youth about the importance of

the use and rationalization of water consumption.

*Transformation process:

Waste of Lebanese Water, by its all causes

Lack of drinking freshwater

-Government problem

-Pollution problem

-Misuse problem

-Political problem (bribes, authorities)

*World View: the thinking that there is no problem and no threats about the source of life,

and water is renewable source.

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*Owners: can be considered as the United Nation and by processing and listing rates and

statistics. In addition the “green peace” and environmental institution also consider as an

owner who can help.

*Environmental Constraint: Huge impact on the environment by several stages, for

instance, the pollutant pesticides that been used for agriculture is affecting negatively on

the Groundwater also throwing garbage in the river and seawater, The global warming as a

result of the pollutions and fumes..

Stage 4: Conceptual Model

Stage 5: Comparison of control model with rich Picture

According to the Rich picture that I draw that illustrate the understanding that I have for

the Complex situation, and my comparison to the conceptual model that I draw, first the

rich picture describe the situation at a snap shot for all the action that been done and some

of the negative effects, the difference is that the conceptual model provide us with the

solution and recommendation that I suggested early and by the action and transformation

activity we’ll be able to decrease this messy situation that described in the rich picture.

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The Major role is by the government that ignore all the facts and results, and lack of action,

also the ignorance of people’s action and non-responsible.

Stage 6: Debate with the stakeholders involved in The situation

Now, debating with people who are involved with Problem situation: The purpose of the

debate is to identify changes which are agreed by the participants to be both feasible &

desirable.

After asking some stakeholders that involved in the situation about their idea’s, I’ve been

told that water bill in the average in west Beirut yearly about 260 000 L.L., while using a

common “water parameter” for the whole building and they got an amount of in return the

water that been consumed, and they divide the amount on number of houses no matter how

much they consumed, if is it less than the other or more they all pay the same amount. A

water parameter for each house encourage of less water wasting and more justice in this

issue. So each house pays the price that he deserves.

In the end several idea’s has been said and should take it under consideration and study to

pick the most accurate and most beneficial.

Stage 7: Implementation of agreed changes:

The final step in this method is by the implementation after the high-agreed level, in order

to have clear features and actions to fix and solve the situation and doing the right thing.

We can go ahead!

Reaching the C ball, Contextualizing, where at this level I have to see what went wrong in

systems terms in this complex context and how might the SSM have been applied to avoid

the problem?

By using the SSM method I did identify the problem at the first stage, describe the

problem in systems terms, and develop a model using SSM which would have avoided the

problem, which helped the negotiation between me and my client in order to solve this

mess. Also the interpret in contextualizing politically for example “israel” and their

perspective of stealing water which is a natural resource of water is normal but it is

Prohibited.

The M ball, Managing, where at this stage the solutions and recommendations must be

gathered in a way to be easily, where in my mess, in the managing stage I support the

learning institutes and media along with the government role increase to stop and prevent

this problem.


Figure 4. A control model showing the role of government in reducing the wasting level:

The MBTI and Ethicality statement Isabel Myers and Kathryn Brigs attempted to identify characteristic styles of thinking,

feeling, and behavior, based on the polarities that Jung had identified thirty years earlier

psychological Types. The main idea is to explore the personality and the characteristic, but

unfortunately I can’t do this here because of the huge actors and owners in this mess.

In order to be System Practitioner I should be Ethical, “Within systematic practice ethics

and values are generally not addressed as a central theme unless the practitioner is aware of

the choice he is making. “

- If there is no awareness, they are not integrated into the change process because the

practitioner takes an objective stance that excludes ethical considerations.

- Being ethical, is acting in ways that do not limit the activities of other people.

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The last thing I’m going to mention in the Tutor report is my Ethical statement about this

complex situation, as a value for me I see wasting Freshwater is wrong in all its features

and ways. And as Lebanese citizen I have a duty to protect it.

-It’s an unknown problem for a lot of people

-Fresh Drinking water is a valuable gift we should maintain it

-Stop throwing garbage in rivers and seawater

-Stop polluting the water and wasting it

-Dam’s and container for water should be constructed


Chapter 3. Client report

Dear Client

In this part, my aim is trying to illustrate to you that we As Lebanese citizen facing

a huge problem, it didn’t start recently as some people thinks, from the middle 40’s the

French government made a studies about many rivers and lake in Lebanon that provide

certain amount of water yearly, and set some options in order to invest in several project

proving the citizen with freshwater.

Going deeply into the problem we should know the causes more and go into

details, the Water issue is not a simple problem that can be neglected or find a substitution

for it, and because of the importance of it and the several uses of it I tried to set the main

causes we face daily in our life.

27

ot using bucket when washing the car…).

At first we start with our selves, and by

this I mean the wasting in the homes and

individuals, usually houses are structured

by water pipes underground and in the

walls, and by time the lack of maintenance

cause of draining water and leak, and in

the Lebanese fact that this pipes are old

and shabby and we can see that in the

streets at nights when the pipes are On.

Also ignorance of using this resource and

the short of educational advising about

using water in an appropriate way was the

reason of individuals ignoring its

importance by several actions (letting the

water on while doing something, n

Another reason is the geographical nature of Lebanon and its connection between the

most of rivers to the sea makes the end line of it by wasting the Drinking water to the sea

without investing this huge amount of resources.


Throwing Garbage at the rivers and seawater, and causing water pollution. Waste in

public institutions, schools and educational establishments and hospitals... Etc. resulting

from the situation of neglect and lack of awareness and the preservation of public money,

and this rate of waste is considerable, and as long as the causal factors existing solution is

to use these institutions to provide services and to identify specific periods to feed water

facilities (Ghanem, 2007).

Most Lebanese areas suffers lack of efficient sewages network, for many reasons, because

the absence of studies, credit and finance, but this remains the best transmission of sewage

water into drainage channels rainwater that may cause long-term diseases, a serious,

belonging to a nets rainwater open and different from the sewage networks.

28

“5000 well, Water is pumped non-potable water consumed for the inhabitants of Beirut.

With construction of a dam would need to provide Beirut Damour, go to 180 million

cubic meters of water to the sea! “


29

According to “Rashaabouzaki” in Al-akhbar journal, Wasting over a billion dollars of

public money, to deny a million and a half a million Lebanese people in Beirut and its

suburbs, clean drinking water, a threat to the whole of Lebanon, the risk for earthquakes,

and earthquakes, as a result of a dam near the unconformity «Roman» in the region of

active seismicity, to deny the people of the south more than 50 million cubic meters of

water a day, and similar-sized villages in carob already disadvantaged Water .The lack of

the governmental activities made a negative differentiation and unequal priority of building

the “Basri Dam” than the “Damour Dam”, The establishment of a dam on the Damour

River, costs only 155 million dollars, has completed several studies have demonstrated the

feasibility of establishing, A million and half million of Lebanese Citizen will benefits

from this project and by dragging 90 million cubic meter yearly in a duration of no more

than 4 years.But unfortunately the Government has made the choice by applying “Dam

Basri” which is 345 000 000 $ more than the Damour dam.

Results of feasibility studies that confirmed the benefits of dragging drinking water to

Beirut and its suburbs, Damour River, because the acceptance of these results lead to

discontinuation of the other projects of dams benefit from these agencies that have self-

benefits by gaining personal profits.

Mr. Alan gear, FathiShatila, peter ray (from Harza Engineering Co.), Renee alkareh (Water

Engineering Co.), Michel broyen (Hazra Engineering Co.), recommends and by several

studies to apply the Damour dam, but the Failed State was the winning position.

The example above supports my case of “the Governmental lack” of better using resources,

and the efficient decision-making.

Recommendations:

Many experts think that the desalination process for the seawater is the solution as an

alternative of the pure drinking water and rivers. But sadly that the Lebanese coasts also

suffer of pollution for several reasons as: the vessels emptied of fuel at sea compensated

for water, and the sewage’s water, and the garbage that thrown by the citizen each day…

Several recommendations I’ll put under consideration in order to solve this mess or at least

to decrease its bad influence on us, and as I’m Lebanese citizen who whishes best for our

country and our and new generation.

Starting from ourselves as citizen who should reconsider the way we consumes water in

un-appropriate way so we have to Rationalization of water consumption, and by this I

mean informing the real fact about the situation we’re facing and that we should do


30

something about it, advising and learn the people how to avoid wasting the water with all

the alternative we have “Media, by commercials and awareness advertising by TV’s, radio,

Newspaper and billboards on the roads” this step should be contributed by the state and

private sector like non-governmental organizations “green peace” or “ lebnan el Akhdar” .

According to the Eartheasy.com people can avoid water wasting by 25 steps, but I settled

the most 15 step that we more familiar with:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Check faucets and pipes for leaks. Don't use the toilet as an ashtray or wastebasket.Check your toilets for leaks.Use your water meter to check for hidden water leaks.Install water-saving showerheads and low-flow faucet aerators.Put plastic bottles or float booster in your toilet tank.Insulate your water pipes.Take shorter showers.Turn off the water after you wet your toothbrush.Rinse your razor in the sink.Use your dishwasher and clothes washer for only full loads.Minimize use of kitchen sink garbage disposal units.When washing dishes by hand, don't leave the water running for rinsing.Don't let the faucet run while you clean vegetables.Keep a bottle of drinking water in the fridge.

In addition, completion of all the water project that get neglected through the last 2

decades, the Litani River is a big example because it’s the largest and tallest river in

Lebanon and contain huge amount of water, and specialized with the ability to construct

several Dams in order to saves and store the Fresh water (Never forget that these Dams can

help by the hydroelectric power).

The government in year 2000 made a plan of 10 years for securing additional resources for

the water and searching between the ground layers for the groundwater and storage and

wastewater treatment and irrigation water, this plan will cost around 2000 million $, but

unfortunately for several reasons (weakness of the government and security situation)

causes of this neglecting.


31

Another step that helps, the usage of non-pollutant pesticides for Agriculture will provide a

clean ground water with no pollution in it. Drip irrigation, important thing for consuming

small amount of water with the same affect.

New feature we can use is by adjusting new water-meter that let each individuals pay

money in return of his amount of water consumption. Because we use now a water meter

for the whole building and the bill is divided on the number of the houses, so the people

who efficient use their resources have to pay the same price like whom neglect and act un-

responsibly and this just unfair. In addition this step will encourage to not wasting water in

the daily activity.

The Israeli’s attention greed’s will decrease after we show the care about the Water status

in Lebanon and the willingness of solving problems will show the world how much it’s

important to us and let them back off, at least little bit.

Encouraging of environmental campaign, example the Big Blue's campaign to clean up the

Lebanese coast and Spread it to all the environmental and learning institutions

(universities…), for Instance the AOU is attending “the Big Blue” in order to clean the

seawater and decrease the pollution level.


32

Chapter 4. The Project Log

Starting at the first week by setting several options of messes and try

to pick the most appropriate one and the most convinced.

After choosing this mess because I felt it’s most convenient and

affect me as well, I started basically by the causes, influence, and

solution. Then got my tutor’s approval on it. Simple questions about

the situation and surfing the net for information.

Week 1:

Fri. Mar. 26-

Mon. May. 5.

More Support from my tutor, and setting the table of content that I

will go through it step by step. Starting my introduction and the

importance of the problem and its features. Plus including the

methodologies and approaches that I'll use such like (BECM, SSM).

Week2:

Tue. May. 6-Tue.

May. 13.

Started by collecting further information and facts and statistic about

the main situation. Also my client report and by setting the detailed

information about the causes, influences and solutions in a simple

way directly to the point in order to illustrate the main Complexity.

Week 3:

Wed. May. 14-

Thu. May. 22.

Engaging more into the process, and start working on my tutor report,

setting the main point that I’m going to discuss and starting with

value, beliefs and circumstances and some other tools.

And applying approaches, engaging with the stages of Systemic

learning cycle mainly in the two balls of the juggler E & C, and after

defining the HSM and SSM and decided which method I’ll use. Also

my diagramming and tables.

Week 4:

Fri. May. 23-

Mon. May.26

The fifth week, by checking all the earlier content, and setting my

project log and wrote my final executive summary and the references.

Final check before submitting

Week 5:

Tue. May.27

Wed. April. 5

Conclusion:

By the end T306, I became be able to explain and use systems approaches, and systems

diagrams to gain greater understanding of complex situation, also consider systemically my

own and other people’s perspectives and motivations with regard to this complex

situations.


33

Along with T205 Systems Thinking materials that I used were very useful and helpful in

its content where it contains reasonable approaches to study and solve problem.

The T306 course develops skills of thinking systemically and creatively about issues of

complexity. It enables me to appreciate and manage these issues in ways that can lead to

improvement. The course adopts the most recent and innovative advances in systems

thinking and applies them to topical areas of concern such as:

Information systems

Organizational change and learning

Sustainable development and environment

Professional practice

The course draws on and extends a range of approaches to complexity management, which

have been developed by internationally recognized systems practitioners. These include the

Soft systems, Viable Systems and Hard systems approaches.

I chose the mess “Waste of Lebanese water” to tackle because the important of it as a

whole and interest me as a Lebanese citizen

In the end, Freshwater is one of the most precious natural resources in the world but they

do not constitute only 1 percent of the total water on Earth. And its renewed sources of

fresh water always thanks to the snow and rain.

Words: 7893


34

List of References:

Abed, Mohamad, Asti 25/6/2006 http://www.eartheasy.com/live_water_saving.htm

Abou Zaki, Rasha, (2010), ‘Bad smell from BASRI dam’ Al-akhbar journal, No. 1100, p.

12-13.

Armson, Rosalinda and Ison, Ray, (2004), “Managing Complexity A systems approach”

2nd edition, block 1.

Armson, Rosalinda, (2004) “Managing Complexity A systems approach” 2nd edition, block

5.

Bell, Simon and Chapman, Jake, (2004), “Managing Complexity A systems approach” 2nd

edition, block 2 p. 53

Blackmore, Christine, Ison, Ray, and Chapman Jake, (2004), “Managing Complexity A

systems approach “2nd edition, block 4.

Kattar, Elias, (2008), “Lebanon's water between the painful reality and future foggy” Al-

balad newspaper, No. 1459, p. 4-5

Kattar, Elias, (2008), “Lebanon's water between the painful reality and future foggy” Al-

balad newspaper, No. 1486, p. 3-4-5.

Maroun, Ibrahim, Baalbaki, Ahmad, and Zarif, Rabih, (2009), “ السياسات االقتصادية و االجتماعية

3rd edition, part 3 P.247-250 “ في لبنان و التجارب التنموية المحلية

Websites: [accessed online 26/4/2010 ]

http://www.swaida.com/index.php?news=1191 “Hassan Ghanem, ‘Water and the big

challenge’ 2007

http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/community/greatlakeskids/Images/wasting-water-large.gif

http://www.baldati.com/news/article.php?articleid=1337

http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/75E62B75-E90E-4169-92E3-A78690B7D531.htm

http://www.paranormalknowledge.com/articles/wpcontent/uploads/2008/12/waterpollution

.jpg

http://www.crdp.org/CRDP/Arabic/arprojets/EductDevelopDurable_PDF/EduDevDurable

_RationalizingConsumption/RationalizingConsumption_Cycle3/RationalizingConsumptio

n_cycle3_geography.pdf

http://www.tibneen.com/akhtar.aspx

http://www.eartheasy.com/live_water_saving.htm

http://www.swaida.com/index.php?news=1191

http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/community/greatlakeskids/Images/wasting-water-large.gif

http://www.baldati.com/news/article.php?articleid=1337

http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/75E62B75-E90E-4169-92E3-A78690B7D531.htm

http://www.paranormalknowledge.com/articles/wpcontent/uploads/2008/12/waterpollution.jpg

http://www.paranormalknowledge.com/articles/wpcontent/uploads/2008/12/waterpollution.jpg

http://www.crdp.org/CRDP/Arabic/arprojets/EductDevelopDurable_PDF/EduDevDurable_RationalizingConsumption/RationalizingConsumption_Cycle3/RationalizingConsumption_cycle3_geography.pdf



http://www.tibneen.com/akhtar.aspx

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