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The Vision
Libya is one of the driest regions of the world with an
annual rainfall ranging from just ten millimetres to 500mm.
Just five per cent of the entire area of Libya exceeds 100mm
annually. Evaporation rates are also high, ranging from
1,700mm in the north to 6,000mm in the
south.
The leadership of the Great Socialist Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
was aware from
a very early stage of the impending water shortage crisis in Libya and put forward a plan that if
implemented can be considered as Libya’s solution to the
crisis. |
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Ground water is the primary
source of freshwater covering 96 per cent of demand. Studies
have shown that aquifer replenishment in the coastal areas
is 500m cubic metres per year. However, this is small
compared to the ever-increasing rate of consumption, which
amounts at present to 4.7bn cubic metres per year. As a result there
has been an intrusion of seawater in the coastal aquifer
with a marked increase in salinity, which has reached 7,000
ppm in the Tripoli region.
Basins in Libya:
During
the exploration for oil in the
Libyan Desert
, investigations have shown the existence of potentially
vast fresh water aquifers, lying at depths of less than 100 meters below
the surface.
There are four major
underground basins in the region. The Kufra Basin covers an
area of 350,000 square kilometres and has an estimated
groundwater storage capacity of 20,000 cubic kilometres in
the Libyan sector. The fresh water aquifer in the Sirt Basin
has an average depth of 600 metres and is estimated to hold
over 10,000 cubic kilometres of water. The Murzuk basin,
which is estimated to be 450,000 square kilometres, has an
upper aquifer thickness of around 800 metres and an
estimated storage capacity of 4,800 cubic kilometres.
Finally, the Hamadah, which extends from the Qargaf Arch and
Jabal Sawda to the coast, has a capacity of 4000 cubic
kilometres. These basins each contain 2,500-3,000 cubic
kilometres of economically extractable fresh water.
These
basins contain in total 10,000 – 12,000 cubic Km of economically
extractable water
For optimum use, the
country's desert water has to be delivered in very large
quantities, in a manner that can be controlled easily and
which avoids wastage from spillage or evaporation in the
intense summer heat.
Studies
were conducted to establish whether it was more economical
to move to the source of the water in the desert or to
convey it to the existing population centres and it was
concluded that the latter was more viable. In addition to
this, comparisons were made to other water supply
alternatives (i.e. desalination, transportation by water
tanker or conveying potable water by pipeline from southern
Europe
) and the results showed that it was more economical and
feasible to convey water from the huge basins in the desert
to the population centres in the north.
Quantity
of Water per Libyan Dinar obtained for each option:
Hence
the decisions for the Implementation and funding of The Great
Man Made River project were made at the grass roots level by
the basic people’s congresses that were then compiled and
made into laws by the General Peoples Congress. The project is
funded directly by the Libyan people in the form of levies on
fuel, tobacco and international travel etc.
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