The objectives of this paper are to (i) describe the problems in current water management at on-farm and scheme levels and to propose corrective measures aiming to increase the productivity of water for sustainable production systems in Lebanon, (ii) establish best management strategies under rainfed and irrigation conditions and to set up a list of indicators that tend to increase water use efficiency, and (iii) analyse a case study brought in the light of the local knowledge gained in this field. The most suitable production system for Lebanon would be an intensive cropping which makes the best use of the limited water and land resources and where potential for high productivity could be exploited. This can be achieved using multiple crops and appropriate irrigation technologies. But farmers, for reasons of poverty, lack of basic security, training and agricultural know-how, rely basically on inefficient furrow irrigation techniques and, for the larger farms, on sprinklers. There is little investment on more efficient irrigation systems, notably drip irrigation, used elsewhere in the region. An action plan, largely based on the concept of deficit irrigation, was launched in mid ninety's to increase WUE of most of the irrigated crops in Lebanon. A seven year experiment (1998-2004) was conducted in the Bekaa valley to determine water use, yield and WUE in four annual crops : maize, soybean, cotton and sunflower.