Water in Libya

About 95% of Libya is desert, and the country has no permanent rivers. It relies almost entirely on groundwater.¹ Most of this is fossil waterFossil water Groundwater in deep aquifers that receive a negligible rate of recharge on the human time-scale. FAO's AQUASTAT therefore counts it as non-renewable, measured as a stock rather than a flow. Source: Key water resources statistics in AQUASTAT (Margat, Frenken and Faurès), FAO paper for the UN work session on water statistics, Vienna, 2005 from aquifers in the south, carried to the coastal cities by the Great Man-Made River.^1 2 Since 2011, attacks on wells and pipelines, power cuts and missing maintenance budgets have degraded the system.^3 4 In September 2023, during Storm Daniel, two dams above the city of Derna failed, and the water flooded the city. The disaster killed 4,352 people, the toll OCHA had confirmed by late November.⁵

In the Sahara, people have long drawn water from underground. In the Wadi al-AjalWadi al-Ajal The main settlement area of the Garamantes in the Fazzan, 3 to 10 km wide and 150 km long. It held a large lake until an arid phase set in around 70,000 years ago. Source: Review of The Archaeology of Fazzan, vol. 2 (D.L. Stone), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2010.02.79 in the FazzanFazzan (Fezzan) A historic region of the Sahara that now forms the south-western part of Libya. Until 1963 it was one of the three provinces of the United Kingdom of Libya. Source: Fezzan, Encyclopædia Britannica, irrigated farming began in the early first millennium BC, soon after the springs dried up, presumably in response to the falling water table.⁶ The GaramantesGaramantes A powerful kingdom of southern Libya, roughly contemporary with ancient Greece and Rome. Most of its people lived in towns and villages, and its civilisation declined from about 400 CE. Source: Review of The Archaeology of Fazzan, vol. 2 (D.L. Stone), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2010.02.79, whose capital was Jarma, later dug foggaras: underground tunnels that tap aquifers and carry water to cultivated plots. These were probably introduced by the final few centuries BC, and at least 617 are known in the Fazzan.^6 7 Oil exploration in the 1950s and 1960s revealed far deeper water, the fossil aquifers of the south, and in 1984 work began on the Great Man-Made River to bring it north.¹

The river moves water that is not replaced. In 2021, it supplied 60% of all freshwater used in Libya,⁸ and in 2012 withdrawals were more than eight times renewable resources.¹ At the Tazerbo well field, pumping since 2004 has opened sinkholes as pressure in the Nubian sandstone falls.⁹ The system has also become a target: by August 2020, the river’s authority had reported attacks on 149 wells.³ Along the coast, several desalination plants were running at between a fifth and a half of capacity in July 2024.¹⁰ The World Bank names the fragmentation of authority across rival governing institutions as a core constraint.¹¹

One interactive map of Libya's water, built from real geodata. Climate & drought maps the aridity gradient (WorldClim) with warming projections. The Water risk layer's WRI Aqueduct indicators, covering overall water risk, water stress and flood risk (plus groundwater decline where the trend is significant), shade every river sub-basin by its 0–5 risk score. Demand shows where the population, and the water demand, concentrate. Infrastructure brings the physical system together: rivers, dams (FAO AQUASTAT), treatment plants, desalination and the major conveyors. Shared waters outlines the transboundary river basins and aquifers that Libya shares with other countries, each drawn in full across the border; hover an outline for the countries that share it. Hover any sub-basin or marker for detail; sources are cited under each view.

Libya is almost all desert. About 95% of the country is desert, and there are no permanent rivers, only ephemeral wadis.¹ Coastal plains give way to the northern mountains: the Jabal Nafusah in the west and the Jabal al Akhdar in the east.¹ The Jabal al Akhdar platform runs about 300 km along the coast and rises to 880 m.¹⁷ The main natural lakes lie in the Ubari Sand Sea in the south.¹

Rainfall

About 93% of the land receives less than 100 mm of rain a year, and the national average is 56 mm.¹ Only the Tripoli region, with the Jabal Nafusah and Jifarah plain, and the Jabal al Akhdar around Benghazi get enough rain for rain-fed farming.¹ Rain falls from October to March and varies widely between places and years.¹ The highlands have a steppe climate, with snow on the hills in winter.¹ The Derna catchment shows the swings. Its long-term mean is 278 mm, ranging from 448 mm in 2018 to 130 mm in 1955.¹⁷ December averages 67 mm, and June to August less than 1 mm.¹⁷

In the World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal’s ERA5 reanalysis, averaged over the whole of Libya, about 23 mm of rain falls in a year (1991–2020). Station records and national averages use other sources and baselines, so their figures can differ (the text cites a national average of 56 mm a year from FAO). About 47% of the rain falls in December, January and February, and no month averages as much as 5 mm. At such low totals, percentage changes in rainfall between decades mean little in absolute terms.

Heat, drought and storms

Temperatures range from over 40 °C in summer to below zero in winter.¹ North Africa has warmed at twice the global rate, by 0.2–0.4 °C a decade and most in summer.¹⁸ Heatwaves have grown in strength and extent since 1980.¹⁸ Rainfall fell across most of North Africa in 1971–2000. In the east, days with more than 10 mm of rain have become rarer since the 1960s.¹⁸ Extremes cut both ways. On 10–11 September 2023, Storm Daniel dropped 414.1 mm on Al-Bayda in 24 hours, a new rainfall record.¹⁹ Estimates of how rare the rain was depend on the method. The World Bank’s dam-failure assessment puts the point rainfall at a return period of 500 to 10,000 years, and the rain over the catchment as a whole at about 200 to 500 years;¹⁷ a 2025 hydrological reconstruction found return periods of only a few decades.²⁰ In 2025–26 a dry October and November delayed planting, and rainfall in the Jabal al Akhdar stayed well below average.²¹

The same reanalysis gives a mean temperature of 22.4 °C for 1991–2020 and a warming of about 0.36 °C a decade over 1971–2022. Station records and national reports use other sources and periods, so their warming rates can differ (the text cites 0.2–0.4 °C a decade for North Africa as a whole from the IPCC).

Projections

The IPCC’s projections cover North Africa as a whole. At 2 °C of global warming, North Africa would be about 1.5 °C warmer than in 1994–2005, and about 2.6 °C at 3 °C.¹⁸ Hot days could rise by up to 90% by 2100 under high emissions.¹⁸ Rainfall is projected to fall at 2 °C of warming and above. Beyond 3 °C, droughts in parts of North Africa could double in length, from about two months to four.¹⁸ The IPCC names Libya among the countries most exposed to sea-level rise.²² One metre of sea-level rise would affect about 5.4% of urban areas, the World Bank estimates.¹¹

Projected change for Libya

The table gives the CMIP6 multi-model median from the same World Bank portal, as change against 1995–2014. Projections cited in the text may use other models, scenarios or baselines, so their figures can differ.

Libya relies almost entirely on groundwater. Renewable resources are put at 700 million m³ a year.¹ Per person, FAO AQUASTAT puts total renewable water at about 96 m³ in 2023, far below the absolute scarcity line of 500 m³.¹⁴ Five major aquifer systems underlie the country. Only the shallow coastal aquifers, the Jefara in the north-west and the Jabal al Akhdar in the north-east, and part of the Hamada are naturally recharged.¹ South of 29° North, the great sedimentary basins hold fossil water.¹ The largest, Sarir-Kufra, belongs to the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (see Shared waters).¹ The water use section shows how far withdrawals now exceed renewable supply.

Supply by source

FAO AQUASTAT’s latest balance of water withdrawal by source for Libya dates from 2012, when groundwater supplied about 95% of 5.8 billion m³. No balance by source for a later year is published, so no supply mix is charted.¹⁴

Libya mines water it cannot replace. Withdrawals were 4,268 million m³ in 2000 and 5,830 million m³ in 2012, equal to 817% of renewable resources.¹ Agriculture took 83% in 2012, municipalities 12% and industry 5%.¹ A 2008 national strategy set a “sustainable” ceiling of 3,650 million m³ a year, including 3,000 million m³ of fossil water.¹

Farms on fossil water

Libya could irrigate about 750,000 ha on fossil water, but only 40,000 ha on renewable water.¹ Two wheat research projects at Kufra and in the Jefara were abandoned in the late 1970s.¹ About 470,000 ha were equipped for irrigation in 2000, and 316,000 ha were actually irrigated. By 2008 equipped land had fallen to 400,000 ha, while irrigated land rose to 335,000 ha.¹ Poor water, falling water tables and neglect shrank farming near the coast.¹

The Great Man-Made River (see Infrastructure) was sold as a farm project, but the cities took its water. Municipalities used 98% of the transferred water in 2013.¹

Use by sector

Withdrawals over time

FAO’s AQUASTAT estimates put Libya’s freshwater withdrawals at 1.2 billion m³ in 1975 and 5.7 billion m³ in its latest estimate (2012). Agriculture’s share of the total moved from 87% in 1994 to 83% in the latest estimate (2012).

Almost all irrigation in Libya runs on groundwater. The 2026 national water security strategy says groundwater provides over 90% of use and that agriculture has been taking 80–85% of the country’s water, mostly through unregulated private wells.²⁴ Outside government production and settlement projects, all wells are privately owned, and the private sector accounts for more than 80% of irrigated agriculture, FAO reports.¹ The national totals and the fossil aquifers are under Water resources, and the equipped and irrigated areas under Water use.

Methods

A Ministry of Water Resources programme with FAO, started in January 2021, sets irrigation durations and intervals from weather records: its first phase covers 78 monitoring sites, and the presentation describes ten phases and 32 activities in all.²⁷ The sources read do not report its results.

Policy

Farms were the intended main user of the Great Man-Made River: a 2006 FAO investment profile described a network supplying 6.0 million m³ a day, 70% of it to irrigate around 200,000 ha.²⁸ Municipalities used 98% of the transferred water in 2013, as Water use describes. The 2026 strategy proposes drip and sprinkler systems at farm level, abstraction controls that link groundwater modelling, drilling permits and metering, phased regularisation and amnesty for unlicensed wells, area-based or input-based water tariffs for agriculture, and a gradual shift from high-consumption staples to low-water, high-value crops.²⁴

Treated wastewater

The 2012 volumes treated and reused are given under Water quality. Later sources report little treatment. A 2020 count cited in an IFAD proposal found only 10 treatment plants working,²⁹ and the 2026 strategy says that over 90% of collected wastewater is discharged untreated, while proposing to rehabilitate plants to supply treated water for irrigation.²⁴ A 2015 case study of Tobruk reported that 51% of the city’s population were reluctant to eat food crops irrigated with treated wastewater.²⁵ The Agriculture & Food hub lists irrigation dams, desalination plants and reuse plants across the region on its project pipeline.

The Great Man-Made River carries fossil groundwater from the southern well fields to the coast, and the rest of the asset base is small and ageing.

Tracked projects

Open the project database for Libya

The Great Man-Made River

Law No. 11 of 1983 created the river’s authority, funded mainly by levies on fuel, tobacco and foreign travel.³⁰ Works began in 1984.¹ Phase I was designed to carry 2 million m³ a day over 1,600 km. It draws on the Sarir and Tazerbo well fields and serves Benghazi and Sirte.^1 2 Its reservoirs first received water in 1989 and 1991, it entered partial operation in September 1993, and its average production has reached about 850,000 m³ a day, the authority reports.^31 32 Phase II, which supplies Tripoli, was designed for 2 million m³ a day, expandable to 2.5 million; it entered partial operation at the end of August 1996, and its available output is about 1.3 million m³ a day.³³ Installed costs by 2008 were US$5.53 billion for phase I, US$8.05 billion for phase II and US$6.0 billion for phase III.³⁰

At full build-out, 1,300 wells were to produce 6.5 million m³ a day.¹² In 2016 phases IV and V remained incomplete, and NATO bombing had destroyed some reservoirs.¹ In December 2024 AGBI reported that the authority’s board had committed to a fifth and final phase, at a cost of US$7 billion over six years.³⁴ In 2021 UNICEF said the river supplied 60% of all freshwater used in Libya.⁸ Pumping at Tazerbo since 2004 has opened sinkholes as pressure in the Nubian sandstone falls.⁹ At the current pumping rate, groundwater levels there are projected to fall by about 2 m by 2030; at higher rates, drawdowns could exceed 50 m.³⁵ The World Bank noted in 2026 that the river’s sustainability has not been assessed against climate projections.¹¹

Water as a target

Since 2011 the river’s wells and pipes have become leverage. In 2017 an armed group closed the Hasawna pipelines to Tripoli to demand a prisoner’s release.³⁶ In May 2019 gunmen forced staff at a station 400 km south of Tripoli to shut the valves. The UN said some 2 million people could be affected.³⁷ By August 2020 the authority had reported 149 wells attacked.³ In February 2021 UNICEF warned that more than 4 million people would face imminent water problems if immediate solutions were not found, and that about 190 wells could be rendered out of service.⁴ In July 2021 saboteurs blew up station 353, cutting water to Bani Walid, Misrata, Khoms and Zliten.³

Dams and reservoirs

Libya has 18 to 19 dams, depending on the count, with about 390 million m³ of storage capacity.^1 17 Their real yield is far lower, with average annual storage of only about 61 million m³.¹ Wadi Ghattara (Qattara in the FAO inventory) near Benghazi, built in 1973, is the largest at 135 million m³. Wadi Kaam near Khoms, from 1979, holds 111 million m³.¹⁷ The large dams average more than 40 years old and are increasingly exposed to changing hydrology.¹⁷ Some 20 more dams were planned, adding 136.6 million m³.¹ In June 2026 the water resources minister discussed structural studies of existing dams, and sites for new ones, with a British firm.³⁸

Storm Daniel and the Derna dams

Studies for the Derna dams began after the 1959 flood. The two dams first filled in 1979 and 1981.¹⁷ Inspections in 1985 and 1994 found severe settlement.¹⁷ A 2021 state audit found them unmaintained despite funds allocated in 2012 and 2013.³⁹ On the night of 10–11 September 2023, Storm Daniel’s floods broke both. Derna Dam probably failed at about 23:00. Abu Mansour followed at about 02:40, releasing more than 7,000 m³/s into a city channel built for 1,000.¹⁷ Hydraulic reconstruction shows the dam failures made the damage nearly 20 times worse than a flood without the dams.²⁰

Storm Daniel in September 2023 caused US$136.5 million of damage to water and sanitation, plus US$20.5 million in losses.⁵ Three dams and one wastewater treatment plant were completely destroyed. Recovery needs were put at US$234.6 million.⁵ Treatment and desalination plants were already not working properly before the flood.⁵ Derna’s desalination plant restarted in October 2023 after maintenance.⁴⁰ In July 2024 a court convicted 12 officials. The Supreme Court later quashed the rulings, and a retrial was ordered in October 2025.⁴¹ A World Bank assessment in June 2026 called for a national dam safety programme.¹⁷

Desalination

Installed desalination capacity reached 226.3 million m³ a year in 2006, across more than 400 plants, 17 of them large.¹ Actual output was only about 70 million m³ in 2012.¹ Thermal plants sit at power stations.¹ The fleet has struggled. In 2021 seven plants ran at 28% of design efficiency, and the Bomba Bay plant was out of service.⁴ In July 2024 Tobruk ran at 20% of capacity, Derna at 50%, and Susah and Zawiya at 25%, while the Zliten plants were idle.¹⁰ In August 2026 the National Oil Corporation said the Zuwara plant was being prepared to restart after more than seven years, with gas now flowing from Mellitah.⁴²

Wastewater and networks

In 2010 Libya had 79 wastewater treatment plants with 74 million m³ of capacity.¹ In February 2025 the prime minister launched work on the Hadba Khadra treatment plant in Tripoli, halted for more than 14 years;⁴³ work was continuing in February 2026.⁴⁴

The coastal aquifers failed first. Pumps became necessary from the 1960s as water tables fell with the oil boom.¹ In the Jefara plain the seawater interface moved up to 2 km inland. Salinity rose from 150 ppm to more than 5,000 ppm between 1950 and 1990.¹ Irrigation had salinised 190,000 ha of soil by 1998.¹ Well water sampled in 2003–04 at Susa, in the north-east, was excessively polluted and unfit to drink.⁴⁵ A 2026 World Bank diagnostic found E. coli in 28% of water sources and 46% of household samples.¹¹

Sewage and the sea

Of 504 million m³ of municipal wastewater produced in 2012, only 40 million m³ were treated, all of it reused on 2,900 ha.¹ In 2021 only 45% of households and institutions were connected to public sewers. The rest used cesspits that pollute groundwater, and most wastewater reached the sea untreated.⁴

Derna, 2023

Within a week of the dam failures (see Infrastructure), at least 55 children in Derna had been poisoned by polluted water.⁴⁶ By 7 November, 6,496 cases of diarrhoeal disease had been reported.⁴⁷

The reported indicators

On the latest values each country reports for SDG indicator 6.3.1, Libya’s 14% (2022) ranks 17th of the 17 countries covered here that report it; years differ by country. The regional comparison is in the wastewater and reuse dashboard.

Libya shares no surface water, but most of its groundwater lies in transboundary aquifers.¹ The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System is shared with Egypt, Sudan and Chad. The Murzuq–Djado basin links Libya to Algeria and Niger, and the North-Western Sahara system to Algeria and Tunisia.¹ FAO estimates that 700 million m³ a year of fossil groundwater leaves Libya for neighbouring countries, a figure separate from the 700 million m³ of renewable resources.¹

The Nubian aquifer

The Nubian system extends over 2 million km² and holds about 540,000 km³ of water, of which 15,340 km³ is thought exploitable.⁴⁸ Egypt holds 38% of its area, Libya 34%, Sudan 17% and Chad 11%.¹ Egypt and Libya set up a joint authority in 1989 and adopted its constitution in 1992.⁴⁸ Its headquarters are in Tripoli. Sudan joined in 1996, and Chad in 1999 or 2000, depending on the source.^1 48 The authority can study the aquifer, plan joint use and ration consumption in member states.⁴⁸ On 18 September 2013 the four water ministers signed a Regional Strategic Action Plan, prepared under a GEF project executed by the IAEA.⁴⁸

The western Saharan aquifers

For the North-Western Sahara Aquifer System, a permanent technical committee of the three national water authorities has operated since 2008.¹ On 24 April 2024 Libya, Algeria and Tunisia signed an agreement in Algiers on consultation over the shared groundwater.⁴⁹ In July 2026 Libya and Algeria agreed a roadmap for cooperation on irrigation and water resources, with joint technical teams.⁵⁰

The record

The register also lists Libya as a riparian of the Bahr at Tubat basin (7,764 km² in all), with no area, modelled flow or agreement recorded for Libya there.

Joint bodies

• Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC)Lake Chad · 1964 · Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Libya

Shared aquifers

• Coastal Aquifer System of the Jeffara Plain / Système Aquifère Côtier de la Plaine de la DjeffaraTunisia · data moderate
• North-Western Sahara Aquifer System / Système Aquifère du Sahara SeptentrionalAlgeria, Tunisia · data good
• Nubian Sandstone Aquifer SystemChad, Egypt, Sudan · data good
• Système Aquifère de Mourzouk - Djado / Murzuk-Djado Aquifer SystemAlgeria, Chad, Niger · data limited

The General Authority for Water Resources (GAWR), named the General Water Authority in FAO’s 2016 profile, has managed conventional water resources since 1972. In 2012 a Ministry of Water Resources was created to bring the national water bodies together.¹ The World Bank describes GAWR as the national body for assessment, planning and management of water resources.⁵¹ Other agencies run parts of the system. The Great Man-Made River Authority dates from 1983, the General Company for Water Desalination from 2007 and the General Company for Water and Wastewater from 2008.¹ The Ministry of Energy and Electricity manages the power stations with thermal desalination plants.¹ Dams fall under Law No. 3 of 1982, which regulates the use of water resources.¹⁷

Law and strategy

The 1982 Water Law made water public property.¹ The National Strategy for Integrated Water Resources Management, 2000–2025, was drafted in 1999 and approved in May 2005.¹ Very little of this legislation has been implemented, FAO noted.¹ The strategy’s period ended in 2025. The Ministry of Water Resources issued a Decadal Plan 2024–2034 for water resources management in 2025,⁵² and in April 2026 the Tripoli-based government endorsed a National Water Security Strategy to 2050, prepared with UNDP.⁵³ Tariffs cover only a third of the cost of producing water, and collection is low. Farmers pay only for the subsidised energy used to pump their water.¹ Tariffs set in 1994 charged farms 0.048 dinars per m³ of water from the Great Man-Made River’s first phase, against a full cost of the river’s water of 0.235 dinars in 2011.¹

Divided authority

The World Bank names the fragmentation of authority across rival governing institutions as a core constraint.¹¹ In March 2026 the Tripoli-based government’s new water resources minister presented a plan to restructure the ministry.⁵⁴

Libya’s water future depends on institutions as much as engineering. Renewable water covers only a fraction of use, and the rest is mined from fossil aquifers.¹ The projections under Geography & climate point to more hot days and longer droughts.¹⁸

The damage record sets the priorities: dam safety after Derna, desalination plants that actually run, and a river network kept in repair.^17 52 Each needs clear mandates and secure funding, which the 2026 national water security strategy seeks through a coordinating Water Board.⁵² The World Bank’s diagnosis is fragmentation: some measures can advance despite it, while others depend on broader political agreement and unified mandates.¹¹