Once Fruitful, Libyan Village Suffers Climate Crisis

In the Libyan village of Kabaw in the Nafusa Mountains, M'hamed Maakaf waters an ailing fig tree as climate change pushes villagers to forsake lands and livestock.

Once flourishing and known for its figs, olives, and almonds, fields around Kabaw, located some 200 kilometers (124 miles) southwest of Tripoli, are now mostly barren and battered by climate change-induced drought.

The area was once "green and prosperous until the beginning of the millennium," Maakaf recalled. "People loved to come here and take walks but today it has become so dry that it's unbearable."

"We no longer see the green meadows we knew in the 1960s and '70s," added the 65-year-old, wearing a traditional white tunic and sirwal trousers.

Kabaw, like many villages in the Nafusa Mountains, is primarily inhabited by Amazigh people, a non-Arab minority.

Pounded by the sun and dry winds, the mountainous area now struggles to bear fruit, facing a lack of rainfall and temperatures high above seasonal norms.

Libya -- where around 95 percent of land is desert -- is one of the world's most water-scarce countries, according to the United Nations.

Its annual precipitation in coastal areas has fallen from 400 millimeters in 2019 to 200 millimeters today, with water demand higher than what is available.

The Nafusa Mountains, sitting at an altitude of almost 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) in western Libya, are home to around half a million people out of Libya's population of seven million.

Driven out by increasing water stress, local villagers and their livestock have been gradually moving out of the Nafusa Mountains and surrounding plains.

A tanker delivers water drawn from a well, to an inhabitant of the Libyan village of Kabao in the Nafusa mountains on May 26, 2024. (AFP)

- 'Exodus' -

Mourad Makhlouf, mayor of Kabaw, says that drought in the last decade has pushed hundreds of families to leave for the capital Tripoli and other coastal cities, where water is easier to access.

"It's not just about water scarcity or crops dying due to drought," said Makhlouf. "There is a demographic and human dimension with the exodus of hundreds of families towards the capital and coastal towns."

Suleiman Mohammed, a local farmer, fears that climate change will soon cause everyone to leave, as "living without water is certain death".

"How can we be patient?" he said. "It has gotten to the point where breeders sell their livestock because keeping them costs twice their value."

Standing by a cluster of dead tree trunks, Maakaf decries the loss of "thousands of olive trees".

"Some were 200 years old and inherited from our grandfathers," he said.

Hoping to alleviate the burden, local authorities began selling subsidized water for 25 Libyan dinars (about $5) per 12,000 liters.

Tanker trucks make the trip between the water stations and the village, travelling up to 50 kilometers and allowing some of those in need to hold on.

"We manage to water our fields two to three times a week but water is expensive," Maakaf said, adding that they also rely on private tanker trucks selling the same amount for up to 160 dinars.

Sheep graze in an arid field in the Libyan village of Kabao in the Nafusa mountains on May 26, 2024. (AFP)

- 'Emerging threats' -

The hydrocarbon-rich country hosts the world's largest irrigation project, the Great Man-Made River, its main source of water supply built in the 1980s under the rule of longtime leader Moammar al-Gaddafi.

Drawing fossil water from aquifers in the heart of the southern desert, the network of pipes supplies about 60 percent of the national need.

But the supplies remain insufficient amid increasing drought.

According to the World Resources Institute, an environmental research organization, Libya will face "extremely high" water stress by 2050.

The World Bank predicts that by 2030, the Middle East and North Africa region will fall below the "absolute water scarcity" threshold.

"Water scarcity is one of the greatest emerging threats facing Libya," the UN Development Program said in a study.

"The country needs to ensure equitable access to water for domestic and economic purposes."

"Climate smart agricultural methods should reduce the overuse of water resources and... practices that contribute to soil erosion and desertification, which further impact productive sectors and food security."

Libya signed the 2015 United Nations framework convention on climate change and ratified the Paris Climate Accord in 2021.

Yet the North African country has shown little progress towards the development of disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation strategies, as it continues to grapple with divisions and conflict after the fall of Gaddafi in 2011.

"The drought does not only concern the Nafusa Mountains, but the entire country," said Mayor Makhlouf.

"Libya needs a relief plan, which will not be the solution to everything, but will allow us to adapt."

Holidaymakers are returning to Paris for winter holiday magic as the tourism industry rebounds, inspired by the successful Olympic Games and the re-opening of Notre Dame cathedral.
"This year there is much more tourism than last time I came here. Much much more. Many more people," said Noemi Rizzato, a tourist from Milan who braved the cold to visit the Place du Trocadero on the Right Bank of Paris, bundled up in her down jacket, AFP said.
Georges Bardot, a 78-year-old pensioner from eastern France, also pointed to large numbers of foreign tourists amid the holiday hustle and bustle in the City of Light.
"We heard every language except French spoken on the metro," Bardot laughed.
This winter, Parisian hotels are experiencing a surge in demand.
The booking rate for two-week Christmas vacations neared 70 percent in mid-December, nine percentage points higher than a year ago, according to data from MKG Consulting.
Top-of-the-range establishments are doing particularly well, with an increase of nearly 14 points over one year.
According to the UMIH hotel and restaurant union, well-heeled international customers are making a comeback.
Frank Delvau, UMIH president for the Paris region, pointed to an "Olympic effect".
The Games "have made tourists want to come back, or to visit", he said.
Tourism professionals said the world's largest sporting event led to a lackluster summer in Paris.
Wealthy Parisians fled the capital for the summer and many foreign holidaymakers chose to stay away due to transport gridlock and a security crackdown. Hotels and airlines such as Air France saw a drop in bookings, while taxi drivers and restaurant owners said their businesses had been badly affected.
With five billion viewers, the Paris Games were the most followed Games in television and social media history, according to the International Olympic Committee.
- 'Time to go to Paris' -
"We needed this catch-up effect because the situation was very difficult in the third quarter," Delvau said.
"There was a very sharp fall in visitor numbers. The restaurant business was down 40 percent, 50 percent at times," he added.
From November 1 to December 8, international air arrivals to Paris rose by 15.4 percent compared to 2023, to reach 1.3 million, according to the Paris Tourist Office.
On the Ile de la Cite, the island site of Notre Dame cathedral, shopkeepers eagerly await the return of visitors after five years of reconstruction work, as well as the coronavirus lockdowns that saw a drop in tourist numbers.
"The Notre Dame opening this year was the biggest item on our list," said Teju Arora, an engineer from the United States.
"And we did visit Notre Dame, it was amazing. It's a beautiful site and it was great to see, to pray, to visit," said Arora, wearing a red beret.
Around 270,000 people have visited the medieval masterpiece in the first eight days since Notre Dame reopened in early December, rector Olivier Ribadeau Dumas told French daily Le Parisien. "Around 30,000 people a day enter the cathedral."
Tourists "tell themselves it's time to go to Paris", Delvau said.
"They have both Notre Dame and the department stores' windows, which always attract a lot of people."

Once Fruitful, Libyan Village Suffers Climate Crisis