Mansourieh Powerlines… All’s Well That Ends Well?

What a difference a week makes. The high voltage power lines cutting across the Mansourieh skyline are well on their way to completion. People’s fears have been allayed, hot tempers have cooled, politicians intervened, speeches were made, selfies were taken, and it’s as if nothing ever happened. 

While I am a strong supporter of people’s right to protest in a democratic society, I would have liked to see a better organized protest movement with far less friction with security forces and something approaching a well thought out rational strategy. Simply saying “it shall not pass!” and going toe to toe with politicians and governments carrying the banner of the public good is simply not a sustainable strategy or a winnable fight. The supposed public good seems to make villains out of anyone who opposes it.



From the start, when the pylons first started to pop up in and around Mansourieh in the early 2000s, protestors would routinely aim to disrupt work on the pylons and make themselves heard very loudly indeed all to draw media attention to the supposed health risks of high voltage lines passing overhead. Claiming high voltage power lines causes cancer was an unprovable claim even back then. The real reason we never wanted these high voltage lines in “our neighborhood”, and I probably speak for many other property owners in this and any other area, is property values which will no doubt be adversely affected. No one wants to open their window to see pylons and powerlines stretching before them blocking their view.  

Obviously, everyone wants a better connected electrical grid in Lebanon and we all hope this is just one of many measures the government will take to ensure we finally have 24-hour electrical power, but protests could have at least sought to achieve some sort of compensation for property owners. The government offering to buy properties in close proximity of the power lines is not a solution, many don’t trust the government will pay a fair market price, others simply do not want to leave. The neighborhood is more than just a collection of buildings, its home for many, a community bound together now by a shared struggle. If residents sell up and leave, that community would be greatly diminished, there are schools, a church, friendships, family, leaving is not an option for many.

However, in ten or twenty years’ time some may choose to sell up and move away anyway upon retirement, there is no question that property prices then will have appreciated considerably, but not as much as other similar properties not in the immediate vicinity of high voltage power lines. 

For many middle-class families living in this area, their homes are the most valuable thing they own, it is not just a shelter it is an investment. Realty prices in Lebanon in close proximity to the capital will only go up and for many this appreciation in prices is their big pay out. The powerlines and pylons will no doubt take a bite out of home prices. This may not be a life-threatening issue, like cancer from electromagnetic waves, but it’s still a serious issue. The question is who will care to compensate home owners now that Mansourieh protestors have been vilified and appear as if they don’t want Lebanon to have 24-hour electrical power?

Sometimes protests can backfire if there is no rational guidance behind them.

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