Residents of Libyan city of Zintan struggling to find water

Hundreds of blue pipes have been abandoned in the Libyan city of Zintan, as residents struggle to get enough water after the 2011 revolution toppled ruled of Muamar Gadaffi.

Zintan was earmarked to benefit from Libya’s Great Man-Made River Project, a vast scheme to tap water from underground aquifers deep in the Sahara desert, purify it and transport it north.

“Even if the water had reached the city of Zintan, we cannot distribute it because the pipeline network is old, damaged and the network was not developed taking into account an expansion of the population. Even the old network was not sufficient,” said Abdallah al-Rammah, director of Zintan water department.

This lack of water has caused a big problem in all the municipalities in the mountain areas. It caused human migration to the cities and even the labour force that build and develop this area cannot survive without basic needs such as water and other amenities like telecommunication.

The reservoir feeds wells at the foot of the Nafusa mountains, where water is collected by truckers who take the steep road to supply less than 50 percent of Zintan’s 60,000 residents.

The mayor of Zintan, Mustafa al-Barouni has blamed the situation on decades of marginalisation.

“This lack of water has caused a big problem in all the municipalities in the mountain areas. It caused human migration to the cities and even the labour force that build and develop this area cannot survive without basic needs such as water and other amenities like telecommunications.”

The power struggle between the UN-backed Government and the rival administration in the east is hampering development in Libya.