Libya, Algeria and Tunisia have signed a landmark agreement to cooperatively manage one of the world’s largest underground water reserves — the North-Western Sahara Aquifer System — ending years of unilateral exploitation and setting up a framework for equitable sharing of a resource that underpins the lives of millions across the Maghreb.
The deal, signed in Tripoli and dubbed the “Tripoli Declaration,” commits the three countries to what the text describes as “rational and equitable” use of the fossil water that lies beneath the Sahara desert. It establishes a joint monitoring mechanism and promises to prevent the pollution and overexploitation that scientists have warned is shortening the aquifer’s lifespan.
One of the World’s Largest Freshwater Reserves
The North-Western Sahara Aquifer System stretches across all three countries and contains an estimated 40 trillion cubic metres of fossil water — water that accumulated over thousands of years and is not being replenished by rainfall at any meaningful rate.
Just under two-thirds of those reserves lie beneath Algeria, with a little under a third below Libya and about eight percent beneath Tunisia. For decades, each country has drilled independently, with increasing numbers of deep boreholes accelerating extraction rates beyond sustainable levels.
Libya, one of the driest countries on earth, is particularly dependent on the aquifer, operating the famed “Great Man-Made River” — a network of giant pipelines built under Gaddafi that transports fossil water from the southern Sahara to coastal cities.
A Coordinated Response to a Shared Crisis
Libya’s Minister of Water Resources, Hosni Aouidat, said the agreement reflected a recognition that water scarcity was a threat no country could address alone. “The challenges facing our water resources, whether related to climate change or rising demand, require us to redouble our efforts and strengthen coordination and integration among ourselves,” he said at the signing ceremony.
Hussein al-Talou, head of research at the Libyan Ministry of Water Resources, said each country would be allocated a quota based on mathematical models, and that a joint monitoring system would track water levels and watch for environmental risks including pollution from industrial and agricultural sources.
Why the Agreement Matters
Without coordination, scientists had warned that the aquifer could be depleted far more rapidly than its natural recharge rate — effectively a non-renewable resource being consumed as if it were renewable. The agreement does not eliminate that risk, but it creates the institutional architecture to manage the resource collectively.
Climate change is intensifying pressure on North Africa’s water resources. Rainfall patterns are shifting, temperatures are rising, and population growth is increasing demand for both agricultural and domestic water supply. For the three nations of the Maghreb, the Sahara aquifer has always been an insurance policy against drought — and this agreement suggests they are beginning to manage that insurance more responsibly.
Source: African News / AFP / Xinhua