WHO WORKS WHERE: Lebanon latest

A Lebanese woman looks at her damaged neighbourhood after returning home in Beirut&${esc.hash}39;s southern suburbs, Aug. 22, 2006. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

AlertNet is tracking the work of aid agencies providing relief in Lebanon, and updates this directory regularly. Click here for the latest on who&${esc.hash}39;s working in the region, including press contact information for journalists.

Here&${esc.hash}39;s an overview of the humanitarian situation as of Aug. 25:

• Nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, the vast majority civilians, and 157 Israelis have been killed in the conflict, and Lebanon&${esc.hash}39;s Higher Relief Council puts the number of injured at 4,059.

• The bombardment inflicted a "disastrous" ${esc.dollar}3.6 billion worth of physical damage, uprooted 25 percent of Lebanon&${esc.hash}39;s population and destroyed 30,000 homes, according to the country&${esc.hash}39;s reconstruction chief, Al-Fadl Shalaq.

• Most of the recent casualties have been caused by unexploded ordnance (UXO), which has become an increasing safety threat to civilians returning home, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation says crops cannot be harvested in parts of southern Lebanon because of UXO, triggering fears of a food crisis leading up to winter.

• The U.N. Mine Action Coordination Centre (UNMACC) has created a map of cluster bomb attack sites and passable roads in southern Lebanon, which can be accessed at the U.N. virtual humanitarian information centre. Some 249 cluster bomb strike locations have so far been identified. UNMACC is also conducting daily mine awareness workshops for U.N. agencies and NGO staff..

• Most Lebanese displaced by the war have returned, but a third remain homeless because their houses are destroyed or littered with unexploded bombs, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Aug. 24. The agency has been helping Lebanese heading back from Syria, but will start scaling back its border operation over the weekend. UNHCR buses will still be on standby in Damascus to transport refugees in need.

• UNHCR is now fully operational in southern Lebanon, where the agency shifted its focus after the rapid return of displaced people. Four relief convoys carried blankets, plastic sheets, tents and other supplies from Tyre, Sidon and Beirut to families in need of urgent help, and three more convoys were due to leave on Aug. 25. UNHCR maintains warehouses in Beirut, Sidon and Tyre and also keeps supplies in Syria as part of its contingency planning.

• The U.N. humanitarian hub in Tyre reports that clean water access is becoming an increasing concern. Heavy damage to water and sanitation installations in the south could lead to health risks or outbreaks of disease, the United Nations warned on Aug. 22. A survey carried out by the U.N. children&${esc.hash}39;s fund UNICEF showed that 10 out of 12 villages visited in southern Lebanon had no water supply. The agency has so far provided bottled drinking water for around 100,000 people in Rumaish, Hasbaya and Tyre, and has supplied a generator for the Lebanese South Water Authority.

• The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is installing a generator in Siddiqin that will power a water-pumping station supplying over 100 surrounding villages. ICRC is also helping repair water-distribution networks and restore electricity supply in southern Lebanon.

• UNICEF is helping Lebanon&${esc.hash}39;s government prepare for the new school year, after bombs destroyed 50 schools in the south and damaged another 300.

• The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) says it has spent less than expected on emergency relief, partly because of the rapid return of people and partly because of lack of access during fighting. Two WFP convoys have reached Jibchit and Charqiye with food supplies, and three more convoys were sent to Qana, Marakah and Rumaysh on Aug. 24.

• Subject to the ceasefire holding, many humanitarian agencies think they will be moving out of the emergency humanitarian assistance phase within a matter of weeks and into an early recovery stage, according to the U.N. relief agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA. The agency began distributing rations for 8,000 people in the Nahr el-Bared camp on Aug. 24 in a campaign that will last until Sept. 4.

• The U.N. World Health Organisation (WHO) is assessing the damage to some 800 health centres together with Lebanese authorities. Severe damage has been reported around Tyre, Marjayoun, Nabatiye, Bint Jbeil, West Bekaa, Baalbek and Akkar.

• The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is helping displaced Lebanese return home and has launched a ${esc.dollar}26 million appeal for its work in Lebanon over the next six months. IOM has evacuated nearly 12,600 foreign nationals to their home countries.

• A clean-up strategy for the oil slick polluting Lebanon&${esc.hash}39;s shores has been agreed, and an initial aerial survey has been carried out following Israeli safety clearance, with more surveys expected in the coming days. The spill, caused by damage to a power plant during an Israeli bombardment, is estimated to be one of the largest ever to affect the Mediterranean, according to the International Maritime Organisation.

• The U.N. Population Fund is supplying baby kits to Nabatiye and has provided some 3,000 hygiene kits for distribution by non-governmental organisations in southern Lebanon.

• The U.N. force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, is monitoring the ceasefire in southern Lebanon and has distributed drinking water to villages east of Nabatiye. Discussions are taking place on the composition of a stronger multinational U.N. force.

• U.N. agencies look set to reduce their ${esc.dollar}150 million emergency appeal for Lebanon now that some 97 percent of those displaced by the war have gone home. Donors have so far given over ${esc.dollar}94 million in contributions and ${esc.dollar}6.8 million in pledges towards the appeal, which will be revised in time for a donor conference on Aug. 31.

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