Between the drought that struck the agricultural seasons last year, and the war that closed off the fields and prevented access to them, farmers in the border town of Wazzani face this year a security reality that deprives them of their right to cultivate their land or harvest their crops, in a scene that sums up the meaning of the environmental injustice experienced by the border regions of southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Souk el-Khan in the Hasbaya district, where about 300 people from Wazzani, Ain Arab, and Wata al-Khiam have been displaced, Mohammad al-Nimr stands helpless before a season he left in the ground; before the war, he planted ninety dunams of watermelon on Wazzani’s lands, spending more than seventy dollars per dunam on seedlings, fertilizer, plowing, and labor, and was waiting for harvest days to recover the cost and secure his family’s living, but the war got there before the fruit did. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Last year we faced the drought and made up the cost. This year the loss is total because we were barred from access,” says al-Nimr, who tried to reach his land and was struck by a bullet, so he turned back, and the watermelons stayed in the field until they rotted. These farmers are not losing their crops because of climate change alone, but because of a security reality that prevents them even from approaching their land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n