$20 million wasted on incomplete Olympic swimming pool in Lebanon

A whopping $20 million was spent on building an Olympic-sized swimming pool that has yet to be completed after 22 years.

A study revealed 26 architectural defects in the construction, which prevented the project from meeting the required standards of an Olympic swimming pool.

Even the systems adopted do not conform to the soil type in the Naccache area. Shockingly, no electromechanical studies were conducted for building an Olympic-sized swimming pool in Lebanon, which contradicts the most basic principles of construction. This resulted in wasting around $9 million in the first phase.

In the second phase, inspections revealed errors in execution and the specifications of the diving pool and the swimming pool, which needed to meet the standards of World Aquatics.

Adding to the waste, the project was transferred from the Youth and Sports Ministry to the Council for Development and Reconstruction, with payments made despite all the defects and mistakes.

However, this led to the project being awarded again to another company, Hicon, with $9.8 million to correct the mistakes and complete the project after the Aztec company failed to deliver.

The project cost an additional $8.7 million, $1 million, and $1.8 million, totaling $10.5 million for a project that has yet to be completed.

In the details of this waste, the second phase was called optional, requiring $5.7 million that was not available, and the cost was raised to $8.7 million.

The World Aquatics then intervened to demand specifications that would make the swimming pool and diving pool meet Olympic and international standards at the cost of one million dollars. The cost then rose again to $1.8 million.

The project now requires an additional $10.5 million to complete what was supposed to be finished in two years. After 22 years, building an Olympic swimming pool would have provided sports and economic services to Lebanon instead of becoming a blatant example of wasting public funds.