Thermal Desalination Technologies as An alternative Option of Water Scarcity in Libya

In Libya, as water resources are rapidly being exhausted due to an increase in both population growth and water consumption in various sectors, the Libyan government has turned to integrating non-conventional water resources such as multi-effect distillation (MED and MED with TVC) in order to compensate for the water deficit. This paper has determined that the cost of desalinated water by thermal desalination plants is about $0.47/m 3, thus seeing this as the best option for providing water resources, due to unlimited seawater sources, compared with the cost of a cubic meter produced by the Great Man-Made River Project which is estimated to cost 0.83$/m 3 . Moreover, the results indicate that, the highest annual water deficit in Libyan water regions was in Jabal Nafusah and Jifarah plain, Middle Zone and Aljabal Alakhdar Region in the north and middle of the country equalling 1,450 million m 3 , 250 million m 3 and 60 million m 3 respectively.