By Sami Zaptia.
London, 17 June 2020:
Libya’s internationally recognized government in Tripoli revealed on Monday that it is to implement numerous water-well, desalination and sewage projects within the next three months in the western region in view of the water supply crisis the area suffers.
Water wells in the Nafusa/Western mountains will receive maintenance and 105 wells will be reactivated to supply Tripoli as an alternative water in the event of the suspension of supply from the Man-made River. Desalination plants at Zuwara, Zawia and Zliten will also receive maintenance within a maximum period of three months, the Tripoli government reported.
Technical and administrative procedures for the construction of two new desalination plants in eastern Tripoli and Misrata will also be prepared within a maximum of two months so as to enable a major shift in water source supply to help solve the water crisis in all regions, the Tripoli government reported.
The attention paid to water supply to the western region comes on the back of the continued cutting off of the Man-made River water supply to the region by purported political protesters. Indeed, reports from Tripoli say that the use of water as a political pressure tool by purportedly grieved sectors of Libyan society is expected to increase in view of the failure by the main warring parties to reach a political consensus.
Reports from Tripoli this week confirm that water is still cut off from many areas of the capital. There has been an increase in the digging of (illegal) water wells at home. Demand is so high that one source told Libya Herald that the waiting time for the well-diggers to turn up is now three weeks. The average well is costing LD 5,000 for a 20 metre deep well.
