Photo retrieved from: www.ajc.com
“Libyan officials warned Tuesday that the rebel-controlled eastern half of the country could be cut off from water supplies without a truce to allow for maintenance work on a power plant pumping water up from the desert.
About 70 percent of the country relies on water brought up from underground aquifers deep in the southern desert, and the plant powering it in the east is falling apart, said the Libyan agricultural minister.
“Out of six turbines, we are using one turbine in the plant because of lack of maintenance,” said Abdel-Maguid al-Gaud, who is also head of the system known as the Great Man-made Water Project, which supplies water to both halves of the country. “It’s going to close itself.”
Al-Gaud called for a cease-fire with the rebels and NATO forces conducting airstrikes against Moammar Gadhafi’s military, and he urged the U.N. to lift a ban on importing spare parts so the power plant could be repaired and restored to full power. U.N. Security Council resolutions ban imports of many items into Libya.
Libya has several times demanded a cease-fire in the four month-old war, but the rebels and NATO have insisted on Gadhafi’s departure first.
Currently the plant is pumping 400,000 cubic meters of water per day out of the desert, instead of a normal rate of twice that.”
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