Water Politics in Libya: A Crisis of Management, not Scarcity

On 29 June, Malak Altaeb published a policy brief for the Arab Reform Initiative on Libya's water crisis, arguing that Libya's water shortage is not a crisis of scarcity but rather of political governance and mismanagement. She claims that Libya's current water policy suffers from the hangovers of Qadhafi's Great Man-Made River Project which consumed too much of the country’s financial, organisational, and political capital – to the detriment of developing alternative technologies and ultimately made Libya's water policy dependent on oil revenue. Altaeb offers recommendations for water reform in Libya including the unification of institutions that manage water, raising citizen awareness about consumption, and greater private sector involvement.To read the article click here.