UCC-Water supported regional IWRM workshop held in Libya on April 11-12, 2007
Through the program “UNEP support for achieving the IWRM 2005 target” and jointly with the African Development Bank, The African Water Facility, and the Global Water Partnership (GWP-Mediterranean) UCC-Water has assisted the Libyan Water Resources authorities in organising a regional workshop on April 11-12, 2007 in Tripoli with the title “Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Libya – Current Status and the Way Forward Demonstrated by National, Regional and International Experiences”. The workshop followed the first regional IWRM workshop held in Rabat in January 2006 and was equally supported by the same constellation of international organisations.
Hosted by the General Water Authority of Libya, the workshop dealt with the key water sector challenges and possible mitigation measures within the IWRM approach. More than 90 experts and water managers from 12 countries representing more than 40 national and international organisations attended the workshop and contributed to the presentation of national, regional, and international water resources management experiences and discussed the way forward.
Libya is facing one of the severest water scarcity problems in the world. With virtually no rainfall, except in the narrow coastal belt, the country has increasingly relied on its groundwater resources. In coastal areas these resources are renewed by rain every year, but the country also has vast non-renewable reserves of water underlying the desert. For a number of years the demand for water has exceeded the supply by far. As a consequence, the country has experienced heavy over-drafting and mining of aquifers associated with growing problems of aquifer depletion, quality deterioration, and saline water intrusion.
The workshop recommended Libya to take immediate actions to embark on the planning and implementation of IWRM and especially to give high priority to a) establishing a central water coordinating body, b) upgrading of water resource monitoring and assessment, and c) water efficiency, including awareness raising.