Libya Report

Eng. El-Hadi S. Hensher, Minister of Water Resources of Libya, talks about the ministry of water resources and investment projects.

"This newly established ministry that was formed with the caretaker government, it includes the public body for water resources, then there is a management responsible for executing and managing the manmade river project, also it includes the public company for desalination of water, and during the past month the public company for water and sewerage was merged with us. So, now we believe that we achieved the goal we wanted, which is to have all the water sectors under one institution, so we can have a good management for water resources according to the standards of the complete management concept, which involves sources and production, then the distribution, then processing the water and at the end comes the recycling phase. Thus everything related to water is now under one institution run by a good management with the help of Allah," explains Hensher.

When it comes to investments, for 2013 the ministry of water resources receved LYD 268 million that are set and divided to the related sector. "20 million Libyan dinars for ministry's council, 19 million Libyan dinars for the public body for waste, 37 million Libyan dinars for the public company for water and sewerage and 156 million Libyan dinars for the management responsible for executing and managing the manmade river project," adds Hensher.

"In addition to all that, the public company for water and sewerage was added to us with an estimated budget of 200 million Libyan dinars for this year, added to a 350 million Libyan dinars that will be used to implement projects, and this is the budget for this year of 2013," continues Hensher.

For the future mega investments, Hensher outlines the size of investments: "Now we are in the middle of adding an additional budget of 500 million Libyan dinars for the river project by the help of Allah. So we have a good financial coverage, and so we call the companies who signed contracts with us to come and start implementing the projects. We assure that the dues of these companies will be paid, and that we will protect them within a safe area, all what we need now is that the companies should come here and continue with their job. A lot of foreign companies are already here, and many local ones started their businesses, so we are already investing what was assigned with this budget by the will of Allah."