Market brief
Libya
The authorities that procure water infrastructure in Libya, how the deals are put together, and what is in the pipeline.
Reference profile for LibyaOverview
Libya’s water sector is state-run and state-financed. The water ministry and the General Authority for Water Resources set policy, and three state companies, for water and wastewater, the Great Man-Made River and desalination, carry out the projects;1 the state pays for construction, operation and maintenance.2 Desalination plants have been built under turnkey EPC contracts, and no build-operate-transfer concession is on record; a partnership regulation has been in force since July 2025 but still needs implementing rules and a dedicated unit.3 4 The register records US$ 7.0 bn of disclosed value in projects not yet operating,5 almost all of it a planned phase of the Great Man-Made River. Administration is split: the procurement rules issue from the Government of National Unity in Tripoli, while the desalination company is based in Benghazi.6 Household supply is effectively unpriced.7 2
Market snapshot
The commercial picture in Libya: the scale of the economy and the water sector, the investment climate, and where the near-term activity is concentrated.
Political stability
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators score, 0–100 (absolute scale), 2025. Political stability; higher is more stable.8
Investment climate
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators score, 0–100 (absolute scale), 2025. Regulatory quality for private investment; higher is better.8
Key institutions
- Ministry of Water ResourcesMinistry
- General Authority for Water Resources (GAWR)Water resources authority
- General Company for Water & WastewaterUtility
Financing & PPP
- PPP frameworkLimited
- Tracked projectsUS$ 7.0 bn disclosed value in our projects register, of which US$ 7.0 bn pipeline (not yet operating)
- Active fundersSovereign budget, African Water Facility (AfDB) grant, UNICEF co-finance
- Climate adaptation planLaunched nationally, not submitted to UNFCCC (November 2025)
Opportunities
- 01Coastal seawater desalination to relieve the aquifer
- 02Great Man-Made River rehabilitation
- 03Network reconstruction & leak reduction
- 04Wastewater treatment & reuse
Key challenges
- 01Dependence on finite fossil aquifers (Great Man-Made River)
- 02Conflict-damaged infrastructure
- 03Coastal aquifer seawater intrusion
- 04Deferred maintenance
Sources and notes
Sources: Water use by sector and total water withdrawal: FAO AQUASTAT, estimate for 2023, FAO AQUASTAT Dissemination System, retrieved 20 October 2026. No supply mix, desalination or reuse share is shown: AQUASTAT’s latest Libya estimate is from 2012, and later entries repeat it. Population and GDP: World Bank WDI, latest year (shown on each tile). Other figures: FAO AQUASTAT / national reports, latest available, approximate. Governance indicators: World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (2025).
Contracting authorities
The bodies that commission, regulate and operate water infrastructure in Libya. In Libya the Ministry of Water Resources and the General Authority for Water Resources are in charge of overall water resource management, planning and policy; three state-owned national companies, the General Company for Water and Wastewater, the Great Man-Made River Authority and the General Desalination Company, execute the plans and projects;1 and the state finances construction, operation and maintenance.2 Libya does not yet have an independent water regulator: the 2026 National Water Security Strategy proposes one to oversee compliance, service quality and tariff fairness.4
- Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Marine ResourcesMinistry
- Ministry of Water Resources (Libya)Ministry
- General Company for Water & WastewaterUtility
- General Authority for Water Resources (GAWR)Water resources authority
- Great Man-Made River Authority (GMMRA)Bulk producer
How deals are structured
The framework in Libya is Limited, the schemes we track carry US$ 7.0 bn of disclosed value, US$ 7.0 bn of it in projects not yet operating, and the funders active in the sector include Sovereign budget, African Water Facility (AfDB) grant, UNICEF co-finance.
In Libya, the seawater desalination plants in the register were built under turnkey EPC contracts for the state electricity company (ENKA at Zawiya, Zuwara, Derna and Susah) or awarded as one (Hyflux at Tobruk, 2010), and the Great Man-Made River is financed by the state; no build-operate-transfer concession or performance-based leakage contract is on record. A PPP regulation, Council of Ministers Decision 507/2025, has been in force since 23 July 2025;3 the 2026 national water strategy says it still needs accompanying regulations and a dedicated PPP unit.4 The Finance & Economics hub sets out each model and where it has been used.
How to bid
Libya’s contracting rules were rewritten in 2024, and the new Administrative Contracts Regulation, Council of Ministers Decree 600/2024 of 31 October 2024, is deemed part of the contract itself: reading the agreement alone is not enough, because the regulation carries the state’s privileges of unilateral penalties, termination in the public interest and unilateral variation of quantities.9 It also legislates a remedy for non-payment, which is itself the evidence on arrears.
| Procuring bodies | The General Authority for Water Resources, the General Company for Water and Wastewater, the Great Man-Made River Authority, and the General Desalination Company of Libya, established by Decision No. 924 of 2007, a public joint-stock company seated in Benghazi that supervises eight plants at Tobruk, Al-Bomba Bay, Derna, Susah, Abu Traba, Zliten, Zawia and Zuwara.6 |
|---|---|
| Routes | Public tender, limited tender and direct contracting, plus two additions in the 2024 regulation: framework agreements at fixed prices for up to two years without fixed quantities, and design contests whose winning study is then implemented.9 |
| Portal | A unified electronic portal is mandatory for tenders, awards and the blacklist. Its address is not given in the regulation.9 |
| Challenge window | Seven working days from announcement of the award, lodged with the head of the contracting body and decided within seven working days; no reply counts as rejection, and the contract cannot be signed before the window closes.10 |
| Payment risk | A contractor may suspend work where payment is delayed beyond two or ten weeks, depending on the approving authority, and claim up to 4% of the delayed amount as working expenses during the suspension. Late handover of the site gives a right to an extension of time or to cost compensation.9 |
| Older instrument | Council of Ministers Decree No. 12 of 2023 remains the government procurement regulation for entities spending under the first two chapters of the state budget.11 |
The open question, and the one that decides whether any of the above applies to a given contract, is the split administration: both instruments issue from the Government of National Unity in Tripoli, while the desalination company that oversees the management, operation and maintenance of the plants is headquartered in Benghazi.6
Regulatory intelligence
| Regulation | Status | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| GMMR Authority mandate | Degraded | 1983– | Operates the national conveyor at reduced capacity. |
| Water Law No. 3 | Weakly applied | 1982 | Water as public property; regulates the use of water resources, including dams. |
| National IWRM Strategy 2000–2025 | Period ended | 2005 | Largely unimplemented. Followed by the Ministry of Water Resources’ Decadal Plan 2024–2034 (2025) and the National Water Security Strategy to 2050, endorsed by the Tripoli-based government in April 2026. |
| Administrative Contracts Regulation | In force | 2024 | Council of Ministers Decree 600/2024: framework agreements, a seven-working-day award challenge, and a right to suspend work for late payment. |
| PPP Contracts Regulation | In force | 2025 | Council of Ministers Decision 507/2025, issued 23 July 2025: regulates public-private partnership contracts and provides for a General Authority for Public-Private Partnership Affairs. The 2026 national water strategy says it still needs accompanying regulations and a dedicated PPP unit. |
Projects
Tracked schemes in Libya, largest first. Each has its own page with the parties, the finance and a dated history.
Sources and notes
Interactive map: switch views, hover or focus a marker, and use the +/− controls (or double-click, then drag) to zoom and pan. Geometry and data from the MENA Water Review library.
16 tracked in total. The full set, filterable, is in the major projects register.
Track record
Contracts on record in Libya, from the awards log and the major projects register, dated by commissioning where known.
| Year | Project | Winning firms | US$ m |
|---|---|---|---|
| under construction | Hadba Khadra Wastewater Treatment Plant | Termomeccanica contractor | n/a |
| 2014 on line, now out of service | Zuwara Desalination | ENKA contractor | n/a |
| 2012 on line | Zawiya Desalination | ENKA contractor | n/a |
| 2010 | Tobruk Seawater Desalination | Hyflux contractor | 100 |
| 2010 on line | Derna Desalination | ENKA contractor | n/a |
| 2010 on line | Susah Desalination | ENKA contractor | n/a |
Sources and notes
Years without a label are award years from the curated log; rows marked on line are dated by commissioning, from the projects register. Register rows without a commissioning date show their stage instead: awarded, with the year recorded, or under construction or operating, with no year. 6 rows in total for Libya.
Repeat winners
- ENKA4 tracked awards, as contractor
Sources and notes
Firms appearing on two or more tracked awards in Libya. For a PPP, BOT, BOO or independent water, power or sewage project the winner counted is the developer or sponsor consortium; for an EPC or works contract it is the contractor. Each consortium member is counted on its own. EPC contractors working for a developer, subcontractors and equipment suppliers are not counted, and a PPP whose developer is not recorded counts for no firm.
Pipeline & tenders
Structured procurements and live tenders in Libya, drawn from the same review that maintains the pipeline tracker.
Pipeline & awards
Tenders
Prices
What households pay
| Household tariff (US$/m³) | Cost of supply (US$/m³) | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| not published (LYD 0.25/m³ announced, 2025) | not published | 2025 (announced); 1994 and 2011 | Libya Observer (Arabic), 25 February 2025; FAO AQUASTAT country profile (2016); UNICEF (2022)12 2 7 |
Supply is effectively unpriced at the household level: UNICEF (2022) cites the absence of tariff collection, and FAO describes billing as irregular and not always existent. In February 2025 the General Company for Water and Wastewater said that, after a census and numbering of connections, household use would be charged from 250 dirhams (LYD 0.25) a cubic metre, about US$0.05, and non-household use up to LYD 1.30, about US$0.25, converted at LYD 5.30 per US$ (World Bank official exchange rate, 2025 average). Older published figures: a 1994 tariff of LYD 0.080/m³ for urban use of Great Man-Made River water, whose full cost FAO put at LYD 0.235/m³ (US$0.194) in 2011.
Residential tariffs, and the cost of supply where a utility publishes it, are kept in one place for the whole region so the comparison holds: a tariff means little without the cost it is measured against.
Watch list
What has actually moved in Libya, dated, from the monthly briefings. Each item names the edition it came from.
- September 2026The Qardabiya-Sadada section of the Man-Made River system was reactivated on 17 September after more than 13 years out of service.From the October 2026 briefing
The full editions are in the briefing archive.
Sources
12 references
Project, pipeline and tender records are compiled from procurer announcements, lender disclosures and trade reporting; each project page carries its own source and the date it was last checked. Institutions are from the decision-maker directory. Economic and water indicators are cited on the reference profile.
- World Bank (2023), Libya Economic Monitor, Fall 2023.
- FAO (2016), AQUASTAT country profile: Libya.
- Law Society of Libya, Council of Ministers Decision No. 507 of 2025, regulation of public-private partnership contracts (Arabic), issued 23 July 2025.
- UNDP and Ministry of Planning (2026), National Water Security Strategy for Libya, April 2026.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
- General Desalination Company of Libya, company site.
- UNICEF (2022), Libya water scarcity analysis and recommendations, September 2022.
- Kaufmann & Kraay, Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank), 2025 update: political-stability and regulatory-quality scores, 0–100, shown in the market snapshot. worldbank.org/wgi.
- Amereller, “New Libyan regulations for contracting with the public sector”, 9 December 2024, on Council of Ministers Decree 600/2024. A law-firm analysis.
- Law Society of Libya, Council of Ministers Decree No. 600 of 2024, Administrative Contracts Regulation (Arabic), Article 25.
- Law Society of Libya, Council of Ministers Decree No. 12 of 2023, government procurement regulation.
- Libya Observer (Arabic), on the household water charge announced by the General Company for Water and Wastewater, 25 February 2025.
Numbered references are linked from the superscript markers in the text. Figures without a marker come from the sources above as compiled in the site methodology.
Sources and notes
Conditions vary by region and administration: both procurement instruments issue from the Government of National Unity in Tripoli, while the desalination company that oversees the management, operation and maintenance of the plants is headquartered in Benghazi.