Karim Bou Karim, the head of the Union of the Municipalities of Koura located in Amioun, said the highway connecting Kousba and Shekka was in such bad shape that it posed a threat to drivers, forcing them to weave dangerously back and forth to avoid the constant potholes.
According to Mohammad Saab, the head of the Union of Municipalities of Arkoub in South Lebanon, many municipalities have been forced into enormous debt.
"Basic plans to improve infrastructure, such as improving roads and building retaining walls, had to be postponed indefinitely," he said.
An additional package within the fund reserved for municipalities with fewer than 4,000 registered residents has also been delayed, he added, expressing hope that the new Cabinet would unfreeze these funds.
These funds are part of the $1.2 billion of telecom sector revenue that has been owed to municipalities since 1994, and the funds were supposed to be distributed in mid-April 2013 but have not yet appeared.
Under the proposed law, the distribution of funds would be supervised by officials from the municipalities instead of having the money divided according to the number of citizens in each municipality, which results in larger cities, namely Beirut, receiving much larger portions of the revenues than smaller areas.
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