The Litani River forms the northern border of the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon. Since the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011, Bar Elias has experienced dramatic physical and social changes as tens of thousands of displaced people have been forced to locate themselves there. Prior to, and simultaneous with, noted transformations of Bar Elias' built environment (see Boano et al., 2019 and Sanyal, 2017), the Litani River has been transformed by polluting industries and waste dumping practices of organisations and locals.
The River is not only an existent which is being transformed by others' toxicity-spreading practices, but is a vector for those toxicities. Today, locals signal the relationship between the increasing toxicitiy of the river and perceived increases in cancer cases among those who live nearby. They refer to the river as something that has already transformed from a vitalising, life-giving source for the local communities who have irrigated their fields with the river's waters, into a non-living toxic vector for disease.
In this essay, I suggest that the Litani is still shifting from being a vitalising, life-giving source into a form of Non-Life: an extinction of vitality and transformation into inertia or barrenness (Povinelli, 2016). But something of the 'old' but not-yet-past river remains. The River Litani is still a part of residents' sense of place. The case of the Litani indicates the messiness of toxicity as a process of transformation in which human and non-human existents are enmeshed in myriad ways.
This essay draws on empirical research conducted with Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian residents of Bar Elias - and particularly adolescent residents - and explores experiences and feelings of the river at this juncture. It does so using images that have been created in collaboration with residents.
The Litani River forms the northern border of the town of Bar Elias, in Lebanon. Since the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011, Bar Elias has experienced dramatic physical and social changes as tens of thousands of displaced people have been forced to locate themselves there. Prior to, and simultaneous with, noted transformations of Bar Elias' built environment (see Boano et al., 2019 and Sanyal, 2017), the Litani River has been transformed by polluting industries and waste dumping practices of organisations and locals.
The River is not only an existent which is being transformed by others' toxicity-spreading practices, but is a vector for those toxicities. Today, locals signal the relationship between the increasing toxicitiy of the river and perceived increases in cancer cases among those who live nearby. They refer to the river as something that has already transformed from a vitalising, life-giving source for the local communities who have irrigated their fields with the river's waters, into a non-living toxic vector for disease.
In this essay, I suggest that the Litani is still shifting from being a vitalising, life-giving source into a form of Non-Life: an extinction of vitality and transformation into inertia or barrenness (Povinelli, 2016). But something of the 'old' but not-yet-past river remains. The River Litani is still a part of residents' sense of place. The case of the Litani indicates the messiness of toxicity as a process of transformation in which human and non-human existents are enmeshed in myriad ways.
This essay draws on empirical research conducted with Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian residents of Bar Elias - and particularly adolescent residents - and explores experiences and feelings of the river at this juncture. It does so using images that have been created in collaboration with residents.