When General Gaddafi brought the water out from the Sahara
On September 13, 1922 a heat record of 57.8 degrees is recorded at El-Azizia located only 55km south-west of Tripoli in full Djeffara (plain covering the northwest of the country). This figure denoting an extreme temperature clearly shows the hostile environment in which Libyan hydraulic governance must be optimal. Libya is a vast country of 90% desert, a transitional territory between the Maghreb and the Mashreq, but also between the Mediterranean and Africa. It is a sparsely populated country currently notably by the effect of the conflicts (6,375 million in 2017 according to the world bank). A narrow coastal strip in the North, along the coasts concentrates all the major cities of the country: Tripoli, Homs, Sirte, Benghazi. In addition, the absence of mountain range allows the Sahara to extend to the littoral. In 1953, during oil exploration drilling in southern Libya, a gigantic sheet of fossil freshwater was discovered in the Nubian desert. This groundwater is under the territory of Chad, Egypt and Sudan. It would have formed during the last ice age, 40,000 years ago. Some experts think that the consumption of its water could last a thousand years. In one of the driest countries on the planet, it was going to quench the thirst of 70% of Libyans and greatly reinvigorate agriculture. This event marks the beginning of a national policy. The unprecedented development of a transfer of water from the Saharan aquifers to the cities, thus meeting the needs of the population. Food self-sufficiency and the development of irrigation agriculture are at the heart of the modernization process. We will see through this pharaonic project, the very close link between rent economy and hydraulic policy. How The Great Man-made River will be the historic symbol of the success of the socialist policy of the Green Book but also of the deterioration and chaos that will affect the regime in the last twenty years. Thus, how will water resources management operate in such a hostile environment? Furthermore, we will see the management of water as a testimony of reproduction and socio-political dynamics within the regime.
In particular, with the creation of a previously rural working class, which prefered to work in the hydrocarbon infrastructure. The fellahs incorporate the farming population. Agropastor the inhabitant of Djeffarra becomes urban. According to Schliephake "Libyan agriculture in 1990 is 20% of food consumption". (1)
The Great Man-made River: a titanic project with the effigy of the dictator
As we have seen before, littoralization is extremely important in Libya, with the largest cities bordering the Mediterranean. Since independence on October 7, 1951 (first state of the Maghreb to obtain independence) and the drafting of its constitution, the population has strongly experienced strong growth. Since the 1960s, there has been a massive rural exodus with the beginnings of oil exploitation and the effects of the Khadafian Revolution (coup in 1969 with Muammar Gaddafi which establishes the constitution of the Libyan Republic). Therefore, we are witnessing the establishment of a policy in favor of pan-Arabism and socialism. In 1977, he introduced a new form of government, and made his country a "Jamahiriya" or "a state of the masses", officially governed through direct democracy. His policy leads to many changes on a large scale that shake up the country.
The low rainfall and the lack of permanent watercourses lead to increasing mobilization of underground resources. A massive exploitation of the aquifer resources which today raises the question and which has undergone the dynamics and political transformations of the country.
Irrigation policy
In 1970, how will the authorities establish irrigation plans for a growing population with significant development. Water is a question of life or death with the aridity of the country.
In addition, Libyan agriculture has always relied on irrigation, which is an overriding importance. It provides 80% of Libyan agricultural production.
First failure of intensive development of irrigated agriculture
In 1969, the discovery of large quantities of water in the Kufra region by the American company Occidental Petroleum led to agricultural development in the region.
In the 1970s, faced with the planned failure of these irrigated plots in the heart of the Sahara and oil fields, the political authorities decided to transfer water to coastal areas (via pipelines) in order to create irrigated perimeters. near the coast. This answers a multitude of objectives:
The creation of irrigated perimeters and farms in the heart of the Sahara:
-Projects as of September 1, 1969 with the production of cereals and bersim for breeding.
- Creation of large agricultural area. Hundreds of hectares irrigated.
This aims to meet one objective: the development of the coastline and the creation of access to water for urban populations. Nevertheless in 1980, the lack of water availability is felt in the Benghazi plain, and in the capital Tripoli. This slows the development of the coastal plains. In addition, the high investment costs, the distance from centers of unsuitable consumption, the hostile, arid dry and very hot environment leads to the failure of a policy of food self-sufficiency through irrigated agriculture.
- Political objective: to develop the coastal plain, the main demographic basin of the country with a large net migration.
- Economic: To fill the water deficits linked to the depletion of the underground resources.
-Social: Secure the supply of drinking water and harvest water for new agricultural development and meet the challenges of food self-sufficiency.
In 1983, the project was officially exposed by Gaddafi. This project involves the transfer of fossil water from the sedimentary basin of Eastern Lybia (Murzuk Basin) and Fezzan (Nubian Basin). The implementation of the project is spread over 25 years (1985-2010). Funded through oil revenues (redistribution of oil revenue) and foreign capital investment from European countries (Italian participation). As the amount of oil income was $ 41.9 billion for 6.6 million people in 2010, water was provided free to Libyan consumers. In 2002, 72% of urban dwellers and 68% of rural dwellers were connected to the drinking water system. (2)
Map of the entire hydrographic network. We observe the gradual deployment of the network towards the coastline during the phases (Source: The Economist).
Problem of the salinization of the water tables
However, in fact, in the growing coastal cities, the water table has been so much put to use that the sea has engulfed it. Coastal aquifers became practically useless for all uses because of their excessive salinity. Between 1975 and 2000, total dewatering was 4200 million m3, or 8 times the country's total renewable resources, according to FAO (2005). Power had little choice but to try to satisfy people's needs as quickly as possible. Intrusion of saline waters in the coastal nappes.
Emergence of internal conflicts and transformation of the country's political landscape
The project arrived in Tripoli in 1996 to meet the needs of the urban population. In total, 3 million people in 2006 depend on the project. However, the cronyism functioning, the progressive privatization, the loss of the administrative tutelage and the development of individual logics causes a progressive collapse of the process.
On the one hand, we move from a tribal water management to a consolidated administrative management in administrative communes. There is a lack of coordination between the different national and local scales. Add to this a dilution of the role of the state (Established in 2002, Technofarm International Ltd operates several agricultural perimeters connected to the eastern section of the project) there is a gradual rally to the globalized economy free of the voluntarist policy from the early 70s. The 2000s marked the beginning of decentralization, the end of a "welfare state" that until the 2000s was responsible for the stability of the regime according to Jean-François Daguzan and Jean-Yves Moisseron (3).
An undeniable social progress, during the last forty years. But faced with the decline in oil revenues, the international embargo, the patronage poilicy of Colonel Gaddafi is not enough. The embargo only accentuated the phenomena of corruption and the centralization of rent in the hands of the dictator (nepotism). A set of factors that will affect the politics and governance of water in Libya, by destroying the principles of equality specific to the Bedouin culture and socializing values of the beginning of the regime.
Water and the Pork-Barreling Policy
Similarly, the diversion of water from Oubangui to Lake Chad and south of Libya to supply Saharan aquifers has been incorporated as a credible alternative to the water problem by the Libyan authorities. The construction of the project has demonstrated the technical feasibility of carrying large volumes of water despite a hostile environment, the Libyan authorities are considering the establishment of infrastructure transfer very large scale. By this project, the colonel wanted to show that he redistributed the oil windfall. But nepotism, favoritism, repression, the denial of rights and unemployment that hit 40% of young people rather bare the defects of the regime. The retaining basin of the big river Benghazi, a rebel city abandoned by the regime, was entrusted to the security battalion of Benghazi, reporting to one of the chief's sons. There was a warning and a threat that could not be clearer: in case of disobedience to the Chief, the water could be cut off. (4)
The Arab Spring
On February 15, 2011, Benghazi became the cradle of the Libyan civil war (Anti-Gaddafi). which will engender the rise of new tribal wars. The insurgents are fighting for their tribes, their cities and their territories. There is a resurgence of tribal feelings of belonging in self-governing opposition cities. In addition, coalition strikes (NATO) and numerous conflicts have destroyed a large number of hydraulic installations.
Today ?
There is a gradual abandonment of food self-sufficiency, We are witnessing a paralysis of the Libyan institutions in the face of a more difficult situation (famines, progress of Islamism). But new national strategy for the management of water resources are put in place. Water management is conceived in a regional dynamic now with shared management of groundwater resources. For example, Tripoli has been nominated as the regional headquarters of the International Hydrological Program for the Management of Groundwater Resources Shared with UNESCO. According to the experts, the institutional organization of the water sector must be harmonized, by establishing local and national relations. Water can be seen as a lever for cooperation and national unity. But the political instability is too strong. Currently there is a conflict between the government of national unity, the pro-Gaddafi militias now affiliated with Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the Islamist militias and the Tuareg minorities in the South, General Haftar at hand on all the oil reserves and therefore on most of the country's water reserves.
References
The GREAT Man Made RIVER Rieder, Noel, Canadian Consulting Engineer, Jun/Jul 2010, pp.28-29
WHEIDA E., VERHOEVEN R., (2007), An alternative solution of water shortage problem in Libya. Water Resources Management, 21(6), p. 961‑982.
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