Desalination as a water supply technique in Libya

The state of Libya without any doubt is facing a serious water supply shortage due to an imbalance between limited water resources and its demands. The country’s population has tripled since the 1950s. As a result of the population growth and the improvement of living standard, the country is confronted with a severe lack of water resources. Water deficits of about 1154 to 4339 Mm3 have been estimated for the years 1998 and 2025, respectively. There is an urgent need of addressing this problem properly to avoid serious impact on the sustainability of the development of the country. One of the possibilities for meeting the problem is focusing on seawater desalination and its integration into a general water management policy. This paper summarises the techniques, their installation capacities and the associated problems in running and maintaining desalination industrial plants, as they will become a vital source of water supply in Libya.

This paper has outlined an overview of different desalination technologies that have been installed in Libya during the last three decades. It has also pointed out some of the difficulties that face local water authorities in managing this source of water as an integral part of other conventional water resources to overcome the ever-increasing local deficits in the areas along the coast. It should be noticed that some of the desalination plants either are not in operation at all or operate with low efficiency. From this, it may be concluded that: C The annual production of these installations is relatively insignificant in proportion to the total demand. In spite of the limited capacity, the production quantity covers part of the municipal and industrial water requirements of several communities in water shortage areas, as two-thirds of the population settles along the coastal strip where the surface water supply is insufficient. C It is difficult to introduce desalination techniques as the cost is still fairly high, especially taking into account that simple agricultural activity is still the basis of life. Therefore, a strong policy is needed to implement desalination within the existing system. C It is time to prepare a national act to create ways and means to benefit from all new desalination development since production costs have begun to decline.