Undersecretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, Mohamed Qanidi, discussed with the Great Man-Made River Authority how to utilize the waters of the Nubian groundwater basin shared by Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Chad.
This came during a meeting held at the Ministry’s headquarters, following the heavy and continuous rains that fell for days on the deserts of Al-Uwaynat and Kufra.
The Undersecretary explained, during the meeting, that utilizing the groundwater basin is done through establishing strategic agricultural projects and paying attention to the stalled ones, such as (the Kufra settlement project).
Qanidi reported that the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdulhamid Dbeibah, stressed the need to activate agricultural projects in the region.
The Nubian Basin is the largest fossil groundwater basin in the world, shared by 4 African countries (Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Chad) and its area is estimated at 2.2 million square kilometers, more than 760 thousand square kilometers in Libya, 828 thousand square kilometers in Egypt, 376 thousand square kilometers in Sudan, and 235 thousand square kilometers in Chad.
In 1989, a joint body was formed to study and develop the reservoir between Libya and Egypt. In 1991, an agreement was signed between Libya and Egypt to establish a joint body to develop the reservoir waters for the benefit of the participating countries, which Sudan joined in 1995, and Chad in 1999.