The Litani River Authority (LRA) was created more than 50 years ago as a development/engineering agency to harness water resources of the Litani River Basin for the benefit of Lebanon. Today a host of water-related issues have emerged in the Litani River Basin and threaten the current water uses and the overall socio-economic development and livelihoods of communities in the basin. These new challenges include: (1) deteriorating quality of both ground and surface water, (2) falling groundwater tables due to over-abstraction, and (3) growing demands for surface water which threaten to outstrip the available supply.