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Under Libya: Riches More Precious Than Oil

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Libya’s new government may look beyond oil, to water, as it builds a longer-term economic future for the nation’s young population. An enormous geological store of water, the Nubian Aquifer, sits below Libya, Egypt, Chad and Sudan. It may hold as much as 500 years of the Nile’s flow, most of which accumulated during the Pleistocene epoch, as long as 1 million years ago, according to a United Nations project to conserve the aquifer.

Muammar Qaddafi launched a $25-billion project in the 1980s to tap the Nubian sandstone, in Libya’s southern desert region. Planners wanted to use proceeds of Libya’s vast oil wealth to make the Mediterranean nation a farming powerhouse. Dubbed “The Great Man-Made River Project,” it grew to become some 3,000 miles (5,000 km) of canals and underground piping, connecting more than 1,300 wells. It was designed by the U.S. engineering firm Brown & Root (now Kellogg, Brown & Root LLC).

Nubian Aquifer water has already filled a small number of reservoirs in Libya, with plans to irrigate 130,000 hectares (320,000 acres) and holds nearly a millennium of water at current use rates. That’s a resource that could foster housing booms, new industry or even low water agriculture that has worked for Israel, just to the northeast.

(Source: Bloomberg)


Korean Experts to Help Normalise Libya’s Water Supply

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Eight Korean engineers arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday, to help Libya to recover the water supply after the facilities and equipment were damaged and looted during the eight-month long of the conflict that ousted former leader Muammar Al Qathafi from power.

The Korean experts been sent to Libya on the request of former interim prime minister in the National Transitional Council, Mahmoud Jibril made to the foreign minister of the Republic of Korea Sungwhan Kim on September 2 in Paris. Two more experts will join the recovery project team in December.

The experts will stay in Libya for six months. For the duration of their stay they will play a key role in diagnosing the current situation of the Man-made River project, prepare the strategic plan for the future of the project, and also meet the country’s currently urgent technical needs in the sector.

 
(Source: The Tripoli Post)

Opportunity: Libya

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Following the ousting of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, oil production has resumed – and rapidly. Libya’s re-entry into the world oil market has recommenced in an astonishing way, exceeding expectation, and causing experts to re-assess Libya’s capabilities. Opinions vary on the final trajectory, but the pace at which Libya is getting back on track is indisputable.

During the bloodiest period of the Libyan uprising, production reportedly plummeted to just 10,000 barrels per day (bpd). As recently as September, predictions pointed to the production of just 400,000 bpd by the end of this year and in November, pre-war levels were estimated to be reached only by the end of 2012. According to the head of OPEC, Abdullah El-Badri, however, these will now be achieved by mid 2012 – an opinion also supported by that of the CEO of Total SA, Christophe de Margerie.

Renewed participation from IOCs will be required if Libya is to return to the full output capacity predicted. As Libya regains stability, companies are looking to secure tenders they had obtained prior to the uprising. NTC officials have repeatedly stated that they will honour all existing contracts, while also promising to investigate those secured through corruption.  There has been much debate surrounding ambiguous statements made by the NTC; earlier this year they had promised to reward countries like France and Britain who supported the liberation with oil contracts, but have more recently affirmed that contracts would be awarded on a merit-only basis.

If Libya wants to encourage exploration and production by IOCs, they will have to issue added incentives to make investment more appealing. The revenue is currently split 90:10 for the government and oil companies respectively, and one analyst predicts that this figure will need to be closer to 70:30, if Libya has any hope of attracting the international investment it needs.

It is vital that production is ramped up as quickly as is possible, as the country’s economy relies primarily upon revenues from the oil sector. During the Gaddafi era, Libya enjoyed one of the highest per capita GDPs in Africa, as a result of its extensive oil revenues and small population of 6 million, but little of this wealth filtered down to the lower tiers of society.  How the new government addresses this in the future will be anxiously anticipated by all Libyans.

The new Libyan government must understand that they cannot rely solely on revenue from oil, and must consider alternative ways of accumulating finance.  Libya possesses Africa’s largest oil reserves, but is also sitting above one of the largest fossil water aquifers in the world, the Nubian Aquifer. It covers some two million square km of land and is thought to contain as much as 500 years of the Nile’s flow. It shares this with Chad, Sudan and Egypt.

In 1983, Muammar Gaddafi instigated a huge civil water works project, known as the Great Man-Made River (GMMR), which extracted water from the various underground basin reserves such as the Nubian Aquifer, and delivered more than 5 million cubic metres of water daily to the coastal towns.  The GMMR is reported to provide 70% of the Libyan population with water for drinking and irrigation.

Patrick Henningsen, 21st Century Wire editor and founder suggested to IPS that “Libya could start an agro-business similar to California’s San Joaquin Valley. Like Libya, California is essentially desert but because of irrigation and water works projects that desert valley became the largest producer of food and cotton in the world, making it the ninth largest economy in the world,”

“At the moment the only agro-markets in the Mediterranean zone competing to supply citrus and various other popular supermarket products to Europe are Israel and Egypt. In 10 or 20 years, Libya could surpass both of those countries because they now have the water to green the desert.”

In addition to its water and oil resources, Libya should also market itself as the future hotspot for tourists. The sunny climate, proximity to Britain, golden beaches and Roman ruins, are all big pull factors. Airlines like EgyptAir, Qatar Airways, Air Malta and Emirates, are all predicting a business and tourist boom over the next few years, and are increasing flights to Benghazi and Tripoli accordingly.

Libya has some tough decisions to make in the future; a tourist industry will struggle to flourish if the strict dress code and ban on alcohol continue to remain. With the militia still fighting, a booming industry seems to be a long way off, but Libya shows great promise.

By Siobhan Young, Consultant for Upper Quartile LLP.  Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Libya Business News

Climate Conversations – Building a new Libya in a new climate

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Free Libya. This was one of the main rallying cries last year for the Libyan opposition, which with NATO assistance toppled the brutal 40-year reign of Muammar Gaddafi.

But four and a half months after Gaddafi’s downfall, Libya, under the leadership of the interim National Transitional Council (NTC), is facing the problem of reconciling the many different “free Libyas” envisioned by different publics, and addressing allegations of some “not-so-free” practices.

The eastern region of Cyrenaica, with its capital at Benghazi (the heart of the anti-Gaddafi movement) has declared itself a semi-autonomous region, prompting major protests in both Benghazi and Tripoli. Despite recent successes by the central government, armed militias still roam the country, and the capacity of the government in Tripoli to keep them in check has beenquestioned.

Indeed, the city of Misrata has been described as a virtual “armed city-state” in opposition to the central government. Furthermore, reports of human rights abuses committed against suspected Gaddafi sympathizers, including black African migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, abound.

But while the Libyan government currently seeks in earnest to address these conflicts, it may be less overtly political issues, such as climate change and water resource management, that hold the key to building unity.

SIGNS OF FORWARD THINKING

The enormous hurdles to Libya’s national unity, which are not entirely unexpected after the collapse of a regime in power for four decades, have not kept the nation’s government from at least attempting to address issues that exist outside the traditional framework of post-conflict reconstruction, such as climate change.

For example, last December, the interim Libyan government sent representatives to the UN climate conference in Durban, South Africa to promote a project called “The Libyan Climate Change Initiative” (though it received mixed reviews).

But despite this seemingly proactive approach, there remains a danger that some critical natural resource challenges Libya faces, ones that are very relevant to post-conflict reconstruction, will fall by the wayside during this period of instability and uncertainty.

In this context, one critically important question is: How will a new Libyan government manage the country’s water resources, and will the effects of climate change be incorporated into how it does so?

GADDAFI’S HAND ON WATER

As we detailed previously, certain resource issues, particularly that of water availability, must be addressed soon if Libya is to sit on a stable foundation. Incidentally, questions of water management can often help facilitate cooperation between conflicting factions, thus helping in the process of national reconciliation.

One such area of potential cooperation involves correcting the unsustainable excesses of the Gaddafi regime. Libya’s transitional leaders will likely agree to focus on righting Gaddafi’s many wrongs, and it will be important to note that Gaddafi’s iron hand extended far beyond his chilling disregard for human rights, and into the realm of natural resource management. The regime implemented massive, yet ultimately unsustainable projects to extract the country’s finite resources – water in particular.

For example, Gaddafi’s oil-financed Great Man-Made River Project, identified as one of the largest water engineering projects in the world, continues to function. But in Libya, a country identified as 93 percent arid, it is unclear how long this can be sustained.

Libya’s primary source of water is a finite cache of “fossilized” groundwater, the remnants of a more verdant Pleistocene past. Present day demand for groundwater, primarily for use in irrigating crops, has severely stressed this supply, and coastal aquifers have been progressively invaded by seawater.

According to the IAEA’s “Nubian Aquifer Project” over-extraction by Libya from the Kufra sub-basin, which Libya shares with Egypt, Chad and Sudan, has also led to “reduced water levels and the drying up of desert lakes linked to oases.”

In this context, any new Libyan government or constitutional assembly will, for the sake of its legitimacy and viability, need to address the fundamental issues of delivering a sustainable supply of water to its growing population, and managing the complex problems associated with sharing such a supply with other nations. This is a question that if answered well, can help bring the country together.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND DROUGHT

Enter climate change, which also presents a threat to Libya’s water availability.  While decreasing water availability is not the only predicted impact, it is a major one. According to a recent report by Joshua Busby et al, climate change projections for Libya are set to yield some bitter fruit (or lack thereof).

The report notes that from the present day to the middle of this century, some of the wettest and most populated areas of Libya along the Mediterranean coast are likely to experience increases in drought days from a current 101 days, to a whopping 224.

Doubling anything negative is a problem, but doubling drought days is a serious problem – particularly if one is heavily reliant on non-renewable groundwater. These findings have also been confirmed by a major National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study in the Journal of Climate from last October, that found climate change already responsible for prolonged drought in Libya’s most populous areas on the coast – observations consistent with future projections from climate models.

While Libya is by no means the country most vulnerable to climate change in North Africa (see the Sahel and the Horn of Africa), climate change-induced impacts on drought patterns in Libya, and much of the Mediterranean littoral, are projected to be some of the most dramatic.

Also, given uncertainties about the stability of a new government, Libya will need to prepare for the possibility of greater vulnerability in the future. Such a dire threat to Libya’s water security should serve to instigate cooperation between Libya’s currently conflicting voices.

REGIONAL IMPLICATIONS

Libya’s vulnerabilities may also extend well beyond its borders. For example, Libya already extracts an extensive amount of groundwater from the Nubian aquifer.  If climate change-induced drought reduces water availability and the Libyan government responds by drawing more water from the Nubian aquifer, this could cause tension with bordering countries Egypt, Chad and Sudan, all of whom share the aquifer’s waters.

Given the current political and economic instability of all four governments sharing the aquifer, this is a potential security issue that cannot be ignored. Agreement on avoiding this potential for regional conflict could be another unifying objective for Libya’s competing factions.

The dawn of a new Libya presents a unique opportunity to create a political tradition of good governance in the country – one that is transparent, respects human rights, holds free and fair elections, and enacts economic policies that work for all Libyans. It is also an opportunity for Libyans to transition not just to a post-Gadaffi era, but to a new era of resilience – one that uses its finite resources wisely, and adapts itself to a changing climate.

The potentially destabilizing impacts of this unprecedented shift in the global climate, particularly for countries and regions in transition that share essential natural resources, should not be underestimated.  Climate change may not be high on the agenda in Libya today, but it should not remain off the table for too long – Particularly as doing something about it, and the challenges it presents to important issues like water availability, can potentially help Libya in its search for unity.

(Source: AlertNet, Thomson Reuters Foundation)

Pure Technologies to resume Libya project, shares rise

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Canada’s Pure Technologies Ltd said it will resume normal activities in Libya following receipt of a C$16 million payment from Man-Made River Authority, sending the infrastructure inspection company’s shares up 11 percent.

Pure has an inspection and monitoring contract with the Man-Made River Authority, which supplies most of Libya’s drinking water.

The payment constitutes 70 percent of the value of previous shipments made under a C$30 million contract awarded in 2010 for the supply of proprietary acoustic monitoring technology, Pure said in a statement.

Pure will also resume activities on the project, including shipment of the remaining monitoring equipment worth C$10.7 million held up since fighting broke out in Libya in 2011 and caused a temporary halt to operations.

Pure’s efforts in the Middle East and Asia over the last two years are expected to start bearing fruit in the coming year, and resumption of activities in Libya adds a very nice tailwind, Canaccord Genuity said in a note to clients, and raised the price target to C$6 from C$5.25.

Shares of Calgary-based Pure were trading up 27 cents at C$4.25 on Friday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

(Source: Reuters)

Waha Oil Awards Contracts to Zulal Water

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Zulal Water Technology (ZWT) has announced that it had been awarded a contract by Waha Oil Company to provide three turnkey R.O Water plants at Waha’s Gialo, Waha and Essider [Es Sider] oil camps.

Waha Oil is one of Libya’s largest oil producers, and the award follows a competitive tender process undertaken to find a replacement for Waha’s existing GE-Ionics EDR plants. The total capacity of the three proposed Zulal plants exceeds 4,000 m3/day.

Waha Oil has requested that the plants be commissioned in as short a timeframe as possible, and ZWT is targeting completion of the project during Q4 2013.

Iftikhar-ul-Haq, Managing Director of ZWT, commented:

This contract award reflects ZWT’s strong reputation and execution track record within the Libyan market. We very much look forward to working with Waha Oil again and are confident of completing the project on time and to the client’s satisfaction.

Engineering Manager of Waha Oil commented:

Our existing GE-Ionics EDR plants are in poor condition and in urgent need of replacement. We selected ZWT based on the strength of their technical proposal and their ability to install high quality water plants in a short time frame, which they demonstrated when installing an emergency water plant for us recently at Waha site.

(Source: Zulal)

British Water Trade Mission to Libya

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The delegation of eight UK-based companies led by British Water – the trade association for UK companies specialising in areas of the water industry – arrived in Libya on Saturday for a three-day trade mission.

Lila Thompson, international director for British Water, told the Libya Herald:

I’m very much looking forward to learning about the plans to upgrade Libya’s water and waste infrastructure and the challenges that need to be addressed.

“The companies … are keen to work with Libyan partners to help address these and build sustainable infrastructure.

British Water has described the visit, sponsored by UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), as timely, with “improved management of water resources and wastewater treatment high on Libya’s development agenda.”

(Source: Libya Herald)

Waha Pre-Qual for Water Disposal Plant

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The Waha Oil Company (WOC), Tripoli, announces that it intends to execute projects which include constructing water disposal plants of approximately 407,000 barrel and replace associated pipeline network on a turnkey basis as per below mentioned preliminary scope.

Preliminary scope of work:

To provide engineering design, procurement, construction, commissioning and start-up (EPCCS) of produced water disposal plants (SWD Plants) and lined containment pits at various production stations of WOC such as North & South Waha, North & South Defa, Samah, Belhedan, North & South Khalifa, Zaggut, Balat, Masrab, Harash and Faregh. Plants to be designed to dispose about 407,000 BWPD of produced water.

The replacement of the existing drain lines in North & South Waha ,North& South Defa Stations.

To provide engineering design, procurement and construction of lined containment pits at Bahi Station and at PL7-I, PL7-II & PL7-III Dahra field.

Application requirements:

Application for intent to participate in the prequalification for this tender.

Extract of valid Libyan commercial register.

Registration in the country of origin.

Well defined specialty, previous experience and number & place of projects executed particularly for similar works.

Financial status (balance sheet for the last two years).

Deadline to submit your application (PRFQ Applicaqrtion) : four weeks from date of announcement (no later than June 4th 2013)

Incomplete files will be rejected.

The invitation To Bid (ITB) will be sent only to the qualified companies based on prequalification results.

Companies registered and qualified by WOC recently are required to submit only the letter of intent indicating the registration №.

Documents to be submitted to secretary, tender committee of Waha Oil Company.

For any query please contact secretary, tenders committee

phone / 00218 21 2202013Fax (00218 21 3612275).

E-mail: rabdulgader@wahaoil.net

(Source: NOC)


Libya Restarts Desalination Projects

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The General Desalination Company of Libya (GDCOL) has restarted work on its projects for the first time since the revolution, and hopes to take on a consultant before the end of the year to provide project supervision and technical studies for a number of facilities.

Chairman Abdulmonem Ali Elhassadi (pictured) told Global Water Intelligence (GWI) that the company is in discussion with a number of consultants, and is still open to offers from others.

Projects include the expansion of existing plants and three proposed new installations in Tripoli, Benghazi and Misrata, with a combined capacity of just under 1 million cubic metres per day.

According to the GWI report, the current planning seems to foresee new desal projects as EPC contracts, rather than the ambitious plans for BOTs envisaged before the revolution.

(Source: Global Water Intelligence)

(Picture Credit: Marcopolis)

Desalination Plants and Reservoirs to be Built

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Water Resources Minister Hadi Hinshir [Abubaker Alhanishri] said on Wednesday that the water supply in Tripoli would be restored by either Thursday night or Friday.

Pumping of the Man-Made River water from the south of Libya had started last Saturday, with water reaching Tarhuna and Misrata.

He added that 30 companies had been tasked with distributing water to hospitals, schools and mosques over 18 different regions, and said that LD 1 million had been set aside for the rental of trucks to transport water. There was also an emergency supply of about 100,000 cubic metres available at the Ain Zara reservoir.

According to a report from Libya Herald, the Minister said that there was a plan for a water reservoir at Sidi Sayeh to hold 24 million cubic metres, which would guarantee 30 days of water for Tripoli.

Additionally, there was a plan for a 500,000-m3 de-salinisation plant so that, together with the local water wells, Tripoli could have three different sources of water; plans for similar desalinisation plants in other cities are now under discussion.

(Source: Libya Herald)

(Picture: Great Man Made River, Credit: Danmichaelo)

Agreement on Use of Nubian Aquifer

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Libya, Egypt, Chad and Sudan have signed a strategic action plan to improve their management of water resources, and in particular of the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer.

The aquifer, which lies below the four countries, is the largest fossil aquifer in the world. It covers 772,000 square miles at a depth of 1,600-2,500 feet under the desert, and was discovered in the mid-1950s by Western oilmen.

Libya’s Great Man-Made River carries water from the vast underground reserve through a network of gigantic concrete tunnels about 3,125 miles long and buried 10-12 feet under the sand. The $33-billion project was hailed an engineering masterpiece when it was completed in the 1990s after more than a decade of construction.

The agreement was made possible thanks to a technical cooperation project by the UNDP, WEF, UNESCO and IAEA.

(Sources: ANSAMed, UPI)

(Picture: Great Man Made River map. Credit: Danmichaelo)

Pre-Qual to Supply Water for Offshore Fields

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The Mellitah Oil & Gas Company intends to issue the tender below and wishes to invite for pre-qualification interested, experienced and reputable companies specialized in providing similar services for inclusion in the bidders list:

Tender Number 740

To Intent to pre-qualify Contractors for Supply of Portable Water for offshore Fields.

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

Interested companies for the above tender must satisfy the stipulated requirements and submit the required information below. Failure to submit any of the under listed documents will render automatic disqualification:

1. Letter on Company’s letterhead Addressed to the “Contract Department Manager” stating expression of interest on the respective tender.

2. Valid copy of Company Registration in Libya, if already registered, or details of Branch Office, Representative or Agent in Libya and Tax department declaration.

3. Company Profile with full details of similar contracts performed with relevant and verifiable Reference List of Clients where the works had been undertaken Literature/catalogue of the entire range of work /service/equipment and any additional information that will enhance the potential of the applicant /consortium.

Contractor shall provide the required supply of potable water as per request by the company

-The services to the performed by the contractor shall be for the purpose required by company in support of their offshore fields( Bouri and Bahr Essalam fields) .

4. Potable water should comply with the high standards regarding its chemistry ,physics and hygiene .these standards are defined globally by the potable water standards issued by who (world health organization )as well as similar individual standards in Europe .

Water Plant Installed at Gialo

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A 600 m3/day reverse osmosis (RO) water plant, provided by Zulal Water Technology (Zulal), was recently commissioned at Waha Oil Company’s (WOC) Gialo field located in Tripoli.

The Gialo plant is part of a wider EPC project awarded to Zulal in 2013 to replace WOC’s existing GE-Ionics plants at Gialo, Waha Waha and Es-Sider fields.

Zulal has been working at all three sites concurrently in an effort to execute the project in the shortest timeframe possible and expects to commission the remaining two plants during the first quarter of 2014. Likewise, the faciity was completed in only nine months on a full turnkey basis.

The scope of works included civil works; water plant building; electricals; design, installation and commissioning of the RO plant; tie-ins; and provision of stand-by equipment. The RO plant was manufactured in the Netherlands to the highest standards using the latest technologies and components, and extensive training has been provided to WOC engineers in both Amsterdam and at site.

Further, the plant is producing excellent quality of water and should provide the people at Gialo field with a reliable supply for many years to come.

(Source: WaterWorld)

Libyan cities get support from European Cities

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Libyan cities get support from European cities through CoR initiative

As part of the effort by the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) to help cities in Libya, a group of Libyan engineers attended a workshop in Murcia, Spain on 31 May, focused on one of the major challenges faced by Libyan municipalities: water management.

The workshop featured an overview of water management in the Murcia Region and in the Segura Basin, as well as sessions on treating sea-water, and the optimisation of water use.

Water management was identified as one of six pressing concerns in a letter that Libyan mayors, led by Abdlrauf Beitelmal, mayor of Tripoli, presented to members of the Committee of the Regions at a meeting in Nicosia last January.

The request for support prompted the CoR to create a mechanism – ‘the Nicosia platform’ – through which to organise help offered by European cities and regions.

In the next practical outcome from the pledges received, Libyan public servants will in the coming weeks visit the Belgian city of Antwerp for a workshop on waste management.

(Source: EU Neighbourhood Info)

UNICEF, Govt sign Seven-Year Framework of Cooperation

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UNICEF and Ministry of Local Government sign a seven year framework of cooperation

The Minister of Local Government, H.E. Mr. Badad Abduljalil has signed with UNICEF Libya Special Representative Dr. Ghassan Khalil, a seven-year Framework of Cooperation to support UNICEF’s work with municipalities in health, education, child protection, water and sanitation and youth programming.

During the ceremony a three-year implementation plan for the EU funded UNICEF programme “Towards resilience and social inclusion of adolescents and young people in Libya” was endorsed.

H.E. Mr. Abduljalil said:

The Ministry of Local Government commits to supporting young people to develop their leadership skills and overcome the obstacles they face in education and in accessing basic services.

Dr. Khalil added:

“Peace and prosperity in Libya depend on what we offer today to children and youth … UNICEF will continue working with all parties in Libya to support a better life for children and youth.”

The Head of the Political Section at the Delegation of the European Union to Libya, Mr. Sebastien Brabant highlighted that:

“Young people are the future of this country. They offer a wealth of talents and the chance to build a more peaceful and prosperous Libya. We have no readymade solutions. We want to give young people from across Libya an opportunity to express their own ideas, and take forward projects in their communities.”

All the parties agreed that this programme will open a world of new opportunities for the young people in Libya.

(Source: UNSMIL)


EU, UN team to Rehabilitate Water Wells

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The UN Migration Agency (IOM), with funding from the European Union, has completed the rehabilitation of 18 water wells in 12 out of 14 neighbourhoods of the Libyan city of Sabha.

The project, part of the IOM Community Stabilisation programme “Together We Rebuild”, included the provision of new electrical pumps for wells to allow the restoration of a domestic water supply.

It comes at a critical time when the city of Sabha has been suffering from an ongoing water crisis, which is particularly critical during the summer season when water consumption increases.

Engineer Mohammad Aboul-Qassem Yaqa, the Head of Works and Maintenance Department at the Water and Waste Water Company, explained:

We highly appreciate the support of the EU and the efforts made by IOM in rehabilitating 18 water wells in Sabha city which has been suffering from serious water shortages.

“This support comes at a critical time when the Water and Waste Water Company is in need of such support to help us maintain this essential service to the people of the city.

EU Ambassador to Libya Bettina Muscheidt said the EU supported Libyan efforts to end the current crisis through a political solution.

In the meantime,” she said, “Libya’s people cannot wait. Families across the country are in dire need of services. They want a return to normality. This is where this partnership between the Water and Waste Company in Sabha, the IOM and the EU can make a difference to improve lives and alleviate the suffering in an area where many different communities have been affected by the conflict.

(Source: EU)

UNDP Tender for Water Borehole

Water and Sanitation Facilities in Libyan Schools

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During the first quarter of 2017, UNCIEF in partnership with the National Centre for Disease Control and the Ministry of Education conducted an in-depth assessment of the quality of water and sanitation facilities in 140 schools in west, east and south of Libya.

The study revealed insufficient and poor quality of drinking water and sanitation facilities in 54 per cent of the assessed schools, which means that girls and boys are at risk of serious health problems particularly water borne diseases.

Dr Badereddin Annajar, General Director of the National Center of Disease Control, said:

As a result of this important partnership, UNICEF and National Center of Disease Control has sufficient evidence for understanding the scale of the damage of sanitation facilities and quality of water in Libyan schools.

“The findings provided a sound knowledge base for the relevant stakeholders to prioritize funds for improving the water and sanitation facilities in schools by allocating sufficient budgets and priorities these interventions in schools.

Dr Ghassan Khalil, UNCIEF Special Representative in Libya, added:

UNICEF urges all parties in Libya to collaborate together to address this critical issue and immediately take the required decisive steps to improve water quality, water and sanitation facilities in schools.

“In 2016, UNICEF and its partner has improved the water and sanitation facilities in 20 schools in Sebha and Ubari and is working on 32 schools across Libya in 2017.”

UNICEF and its partners will use the results of this study to spearhead its water and sanitation programmes in Libya. Additionally, the findings will be used as a base to leverage essential funds to support children to continue their education in conducive and healthy school environment.

This study was only possible with the generous contributions from the German Government.

(Source: UNSMIL)

Under Libya: Riches More Precious Than Oil

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Libya’s new government may look beyond oil, to water, as it builds a longer-term economic future for the nation’s young population. An enormous geological store of water, the Nubian Aquifer, sits below Libya, Egypt, Chad and Sudan. It may hold as much as 500 years of the Nile’s flow, most of which accumulated during the Pleistocene epoch, as long as 1 million years ago, according to a United Nations project to conserve the aquifer.

Muammar Qaddafi launched a $25-billion project in the 1980s to tap the Nubian sandstone, in Libya’s southern desert region. Planners wanted to use proceeds of Libya’s vast oil wealth to make the Mediterranean nation a farming powerhouse. Dubbed “The Great Man-Made River Project,” it grew to become some 3,000 miles (5,000 km) of canals and underground piping, connecting more than 1,300 wells. It was designed by the U.S. engineering firm Brown & Root (now Kellogg, Brown & Root LLC).

Nubian Aquifer water has already filled a small number of reservoirs in Libya, with plans to irrigate 130,000 hectares (320,000 acres) and holds nearly a millennium of water at current use rates. That’s a resource that could foster housing booms, new industry or even low water agriculture that has worked for Israel, just to the northeast.

(Source: Bloomberg)

Korean Experts to Help Normalise Libya’s Water Supply

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Eight Korean engineers arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday, to help Libya to recover the water supply after the facilities and equipment were damaged and looted during the eight-month long of the conflict that ousted former leader Muammar Al Qathafi from power.

The Korean experts been sent to Libya on the request of former interim prime minister in the National Transitional Council, Mahmoud Jibril made to the foreign minister of the Republic of Korea Sungwhan Kim on September 2 in Paris. Two more experts will join the recovery project team in December.

The experts will stay in Libya for six months. For the duration of their stay they will play a key role in diagnosing the current situation of the Man-made River project, prepare the strategic plan for the future of the project, and also meet the country’s currently urgent technical needs in the sector.

 
(Source: The Tripoli Post)
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