Libya on brink of water crisis as armed group closes main source

BY Libyan Express Oct 23, 2017 - 13:31

Man-Made River in Libya’s southern region (Photo: Internet)

The Man-Made River administration has announced finishing the routine maintenance at the Shuwairif station, but said it would be unable to restore water supllies to flow back into the Libyan cities due to the threats of an armed group in the area.

The administration started the maintenance work on October 16 and said it would take 9 days to finish, however an armed group led by Abulqassim Ehnish threatened in a… video statement to shut down the water source and later blow it up if their demands were not answered.

The armed group demanded their commander Al-Mabrouk Ehnish be released from Tripoli by the Special Deterrent Force after he was detained earlier last month heading a force and trying to enter southern Tripoli.

“We give the force 72 hours otherwise we will explode the Man-Made River and we will even shut down the gas and oil pipelines in the southern region.” Ehnish said in the video three days ago.

Today, the capital and other cities in Libya re left without water supplies and the crisis will only get worse by time as the armed group is still vowing to do more harm to the water source.

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