Fixing Lebanon one neighbourhood at a time: App maps broken infrastructure and holds authorities to account
It was the crumbling stone wall that did it. For a decade, the 50-metre stretch of wall along Ardeh’s main road deteriorated, threatening to fall on the hundreds of vehicles that pass through the village in northern Lebanon's Zgharta district each day. The residents of Ardeh told the local authorities about the wall on numerous occasions, but it was never fixed. Roy Bou Nasser, a 28-year-old…
A crumbling stone wall in Ardeh, Lebanon, threatened to fall on passing vehicles for a decade. Frustrated by the municipality's inaction, Roy Bou Nasser, a mechanical and industrial engineer, created Baladi Map, a platform that allows residents to document problems and hold authorities accountable. The free website and mobile app enables users to photograph issues, add descriptions and locations, and publish them on a map, publicly pressuring authorities to resolve them.
Baladi Map has already garnered 1,000 registered users who have reported issues ranging from dangerous roads to illegal pavement encroachments. Municipalities that join the platform receive a dashboard to track reported problems and respond publicly to residents. Baladi Map aims to tackle smaller municipal issues that often fall by the wayside due to political clientelism, limited budgets, or institutional mismanagement.
The platform also allows residents to vote on problems, giving authorities insight into which complaints affect the most people. Bou Nasser hopes that starting at the local level with one fix at a time can lead to meaningful change across Lebanon.
Written by urgent.news from The National UAE's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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