The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya has a total area of about 1.76 million km . It is bordered in the east by Egypt and Sudan, on the south by Chad and Niger, in the west by Algeria and Tunisia, and in the north by the Mediterranean Sea. The climatic conditions are influenced by the Mediterranean sea to the north and the Sahara desert to the south, resulting in an abrupt transition from one kind of weather to another.
Rain is rare and irregular and diminishes progressively towards zero.
Sixteen dams, with a total storage capacity of 387 million m and with an expected average annual volume of water controlled in the order of 60 million m , had been constructed by 1991. Additional dams are planned, to achieve a total storage capacity of 686 million m . This difference between the average annual runoff and the storage capacity of the dams is so that the runoff water of exceptionally wet years can be stored. Currently, aquifers are only recharged only in the northern regions, namely in the northwestern zone, Jabal Nafusah and Jifarah Plain, and in the north-eastern zone, Jabal al Akhdar. Not all the renewable groundwater can be abstracted without affecting the environment, because of the deterioration of water quality by saline water encroachment.