Lebanon's 15-yr economic recovery 'annihilated' in one month

GENEVA (AFX) - Lebanon's 15-year economic and social recovery from civil war was wiped out in the recent Israeli offensive against Hezbollah, the UN development agency said. 'The damage is such that the last 15 years of work on reconstruction and rehabilitation, following the previous problems that Lebanon experienced, are now annihilated,' said Jean Fabre, a spokesman for the UN Development Programme (UNDP). Lebanon's relatively healthy progress towards the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, which cover a range of social and economic targets, 'have been brought back to zero,' he told journalists. 'Fifteen years of work have been wiped out in a month.' Fabre estimated that overall economic losses for Lebanon from the month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah totalled 'at least 15 billion dollars, if not more'. Lebanese authorities estimated last week that direct structural damage inflicted by the offensive reached 3.6 bln usd, including 15,000 housing units, 80 bridges and 94 roads destroyed or damaged. About 35,000 homes and businesses were destroyed in the conflict, while a quarter of the country's road bridges or flyovers were shattered, according to the UNDP's initial estimate. UN agencies said it would take weeks to assess the full extent of the damage in south Lebanon and southern Beirut. The need for clean water and sanitation, to make safe unexploded munitions and to build shelters are the most urgent issues, aid agencies said.