The Water Crisis in Libya: Issues and Solutions

The population I chose are the people of Libya. Libya is a country in Africa. The limiting resource in this country is water. Libya is primarily a desert country which means clean water is more of a luxury and becoming more scarce to find. However, water is needed for important things such as being able to sustain life such as the consumption of water by humans as well as agricultural purposes. Most of Libya’s clean water can be found in natural formed aquifers which care just below the country’s vast deserts. There are some factors that are causing the water to become undrinkable such as pollution levels increasing over the years due to the amount of oil being drilled.

Things such as salt water contamination is another factor that contributes to the water crisis. Due to global warming as well as rising ocean levels the sea level has advanced about one to two kilometers inland which has affected the natural aquifers by causing an increase in the salinity of the groundwater. These factors have complicated the already struggling water quality making the water supply even more challenging to obtain clean water and some of these factors are out of their control to fix. The people of Libya have been complaining about the lack of water for quite some time since water is a vital part of life. In order to bring more attention to the issue, residents have been protesting and if the problem isn’t solved, residents have suggested the idea to move forward with the process of shutting down Marsa Hariga, known as one of the nation’s biggest oil export ports.

The water crisis in Libya has led them to create a water trade with dealers in the city of Sabha. Dealers bring water from wells that are located outside of the city about 20 kilometers away and then sell that water to residents at a high price. Even though this is a solution and is helping alleviate the crisis but, this solution is putting a financial burden on residents considering majority of the people of Sabha can’t afford those prices that the water is being sold at. In order to help this population, there needs to be an alternative to oil production. Officials have come up with the idea to install new pumps. The pumps would still be able to operate properly despite the fact that Libya has fluctuations in their electrical currents. There can also be an improvement in water management.

To improve water management, Libya could review their agricultural water policies. This will could help the water from deteriorate in quality and even minimize some local areas deficits in their water supply. For this population, I don’t see there being an improvement anytime soon for Libya because the economy of the country relies on the oil revenues. Transitioning to different pumps will come with financial difficulties as well as overcoming obstacles in regards to dealing with administration. Making any changes could lead to Libya struggling more than what they already are.