Beirut, Lebanon
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly visited south Lebanon today where he toured part of the area along the Blue Line. He also viewed development projects and met with Lebanese local authorities.
“I was very pleased to see how the UN and local communities are working together to convert unused lands and render them more productive,” said Mr. Plumbly at a meeting with farmers after a visit to an agriculture project supported by UNDP in Marjayoun. In Shebaa, he was briefed on a sewage project recently undertaken in the Wastan neighborhood by UNIFIL in cooperation with the local municipality.
Later in the day, the UN Special Coordinator visited a waste-management project established by UNIFIL and UNDP and now managed by the Municipality of Taybeh. Following the visit, he said that the project highlighted the way in which different parts of the UN system can work together with local authorities to deliver sustainable environmental results for the south: it was a model of cooperation which the UN hoped to replicate elsewhere in the south in future.
Mr. Plumbly also visited the eastern sector of the Blue Line and was briefed by UNIFIL officers on the work of the international force there. Separately, the Special Coordinator met with local authorities in the Marjayoun and Shebaa areas and with Members of Parliament in Tyre. During all his meetings, he emphasized the link between the security and stability, which was made possible in south Lebanon by the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701, and the longer term development of the region.