Delivering Relief: Water Trucks and the Negotiations of a “Cut-Off” Life in Contemporary Lebanon

Abstract Amid compounding crises and infrastructure breakdown, trucking has become a fundamental mode of water distribution in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley. Water trucks address the momentary failings of the standard distribution network and also extend water’s reach to displaced communities prohibited from these connections. This paper offers an ethnography of water trucks servicing populations experiencing a “cut-off” ( maʾtouʿ ) life, from Lebanese municipalities experiencing infrastructure breakdown to displaced Syrians living in off-grid settlements. Rather than permanently repair broken systems, water trucks bring continuous relief to the (un)expected and inevitable shortcomings of infrastructure’s standard operations. They are vital, powerful, yet suspect actors that, by delivering a fundamental life necessity, shape daily life in contemporary Lebanon. Closely examining water trucks and the service they provide through their raucous, hazardous, and life-giving operations brings into relief material, labor, and political realities. Despite concerns regarding cost and quality, trucking has become essential to the adequate functioning of the everyday in Lebanon.