Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah has said Kuwait will help finance a huge irrigation and power generation project in southern Lebanon, Lebanese parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri said Wednesday.
"The emir told me Kuwait will contribute to financing the project," the cost of which runs into hundreds of millions of dollars, Berri told a press conference.
Head of the Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development (AFSED) Abdullatif Al-Hamad has also promised a major contribution by the Fund, Berri said.
The project, to be constructed on the Litani River, will provide irrigation to the whole of southern Lebanon, most of which was under Israeli occupation for 22 years. It can also considerably strengthen the power and water situation in Lebanon.
Feasibility studies have been completed and work on the vital project could begin as early as June this year, Berri said.
Berri concluded Wednesday a four-day official visit to Kuwait, during which he also received a promise from Kuwait to help clear some 130,000 land mines left by Israeli troops in the South. — (AFP, Kuwait City)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
