LEBANON – A pothole that never gets fixed, rubbish piling up, or a streetlight that has been broken for months. These are familiar problems for residents across Lebanon. Complaints often end up in WhatsApp groups or on social media, but what happens after that?
Baladi Map, a platform being expanded across the country through Project 1062, aims to turn everyday frustrations into documented concerns that municipalities can address. The project seeks to bring the platform to municipalities across Lebanon and encourage practical responses to local challenges.
In an interview with Enmaeya, Roy Bou Nassif, the founder of Baladi Map, discusses how the platform works, what its early findings reveal, and how it aims to strengthen communication and accountability between residents and local authorities.
From Frustration to Participation
Lebanon has more than 1,060 municipalities, yet residents have few accessible public channels to share suggestions, report problems, or recognise positive local initiatives.
Baladi Map aims to address this gap by providing a structured, publicly visible record of residents’ concerns. Rather than functioning as a petition or protest platform, it encourages constructive dialogue by documenting problems, identifying their locations, and directing them to the relevant municipality.
The platform is not limited to complaints. Residents can also share positive local initiatives, suggest improvements, and highlight what they appreciate about their communities.
The goal is to help municipalities better understand residents’ priorities and ensure that participation is not limited to those with the loudest voices or strongest connections.
How Does Baladi Map Work?
Residents can submit a report through the Baladi Map application or WhatsApp at 76 10 1062. They identify the location, describe the problem, and attach a photograph if available.
The team reviews submissions within a few hours before publication. Faces and vehicle number plates are blurred in photographs, and residents’ names are not displayed. Each published report is marked on the public map, linked to its location and the municipality concerned.
Registered municipalities can access a dashboard to review reports, filter them by category, and see how many residents are affected by each issue. They can respond publicly, mark issues as “noted” or “in progress,” or refer them to the responsible authority. Municipalities can also upload photographs showing completed work, which the team reviews before marking a problem as fixed. Residents can submit photographs as evidence, too.
When an issue falls outside a municipality’s responsibility, such as mobile network coverage or a highway-related problem, the platform identifies the relevant authority.
Residents who prefer WhatsApp can send a message or voice note, along with a photograph or short video if available. An AI assistant turns the information into a report for the resident to confirm before submission. The report then enters the same public database as submissions made through the application.
The platform makes both municipal responses and non-responses publicly visible, allowing residents to follow what happens after they report a concern.
What Do the First Findings Reveal?
So Far, Baladi Map had received nearly 500 suggestions from 127 municipalities. Roads accounted for 53% of submissions at the beginning of October, falling to 51% by the interview date.
However, these figures do not necessarily mean roads are residents’ most urgent concern. Road damage is easy to photograph, while issues such as noise pollution, unreliable water supplies, and mosquito infestations can be harder to document with a single image. As more residents use the platform, the range of reported issues may expand.
Geographical differences are also emerging. Roads represented 63% of reports in Beirut and 54% in Mount Lebanon, compared with approximately a quarter in the rest of the country, where waste-related concerns were almost as common.
Other submissions concern waste management, sewage, water, street lighting, deteriorating public spaces, noise, and environmental hazards. These are everyday services that directly affect the quality of life in local communities.
The data also highlights longstanding problems. Sixty-nine reports described issues that residents said had persisted for at least a year, while 14 referred to problems lasting a decade or longer.
These findings offer a growing public record of local needs and provide municipalities with information that can help them identify priorities.
Are Municipalities Responding?
Several municipalities have already engaged with residents through the platform. Jbeil responded publicly to concerns about quad bikes being rented to children and required rental shops to sign a safety pledge. Mar Chaaya–Mzakke followed up on reports concerning noise, potholes, and sewage, while Halba marked reports as noted.
According to Bou Nassif, around 20 reported issues had already been addressed, including traffic lights in Jbeil. Some issues were marked as fixed after residents submitted photographs of the completed work, although the team did not always know who had carried out the repairs.
Residents can track their submissions and receive notifications when their reports are published. Account holders can also be notified when municipalities reply, update a report’s status, or provide evidence of a fix. This follow-up is intended to show residents that their concerns have been heard and encourage them to continue participating.
The platform also publishes a public scoreboard on baladimap.com showing how many reported problems have been fixed and how many are still awaiting action. By making municipal responses visible, the scoreboard aims to encourage accountability and motivate municipalities to learn from one another.
Reaching More Communities
Submissions initially concentrated in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, which accounted for 83% of reports at the beginning of October. Their share fell to 79% by the interview date, while reports from Akkar increased from four to 33.
Project 1062 is working with municipalities across Lebanon, from Kobayat to Saida, and 22 municipalities had opened Baladi Map desks as part of the pilot, including Jdeideh, Halba, Zahlé, and Saida.
WhatsApp is central to reaching communities where downloading an application may be a barrier. Residents can submit a concern using a basic smartphone, without needing to be familiar with civic technology platforms. Reports submitted through WhatsApp enter the same system as those submitted through the application.
Expanding participation beyond Beirut and Mount Lebanon remains an important goal, particularly to ensure that communities in other regions are represented in the data.
Measuring Meaningful Change
The initiative’s success depends on more than collecting reports. Its broader goal is to build a two-way relationship in which residents can reach local authorities and municipalities routinely listen to community needs.
In the short term, Project 1062 plans to monitor the diversity and geographical distribution of submissions, the proportion receiving public acknowledgement within 30 days, and the number leading to visible municipal action.
The longer-term ambition is for mayors to check their Baladi Map dashboards daily, making resident feedback part of routine municipal work rather than an occasional task.
Ultimately, the platform’s impact will depend on whether residents feel their time is well spent and whether reporting local problems helps bring about change in their communities.
Residents can participate by downloading Baladi Map from the App Store or Google Play, or by sending a report through WhatsApp at 76 10 1062. Beyond reporting problems, they can also use the platform to share ideas and highlight positive initiatives in their towns.
By turning individual concerns into a public record, Baladi Map aims to help residents and municipalities move beyond informal complaints towards more constructive dialogue and visible local action.
