地下水湧き出て家屋が浸水　リビア沿岸都市

【ズリテン（リビア）ＡＦＰ＝時事】リビアの大部分は乾ききった砂漠だが、地中海沿岸のある都市は、真逆の問題に苦しんでいる──地下水が湧き出し、家屋や田畑を水浸しにしているのだ。原因は特定されていない。（写真は、リビアの沿岸都市ズリテンで、冠水した土地の横に立つ人々）
　北西部ズリテンの周辺では、よどんだ水と泥が家屋や道、ヤシの木立に押し寄せ、悪臭をまき散らし、蚊の温床となっている。
　首都トリポリの東方約１６０キロに位置するこの一帯では、状況の悪化が懸念される中、多くの住民が壁にひびが入ったり倒壊したりした自宅から避難している。
　ズリテンから４キロほど離れた場所で農園を営む男性は、「水は２か月前から出始め、今も湧き続け、井戸を水没させている」とＡＦＰに語った。「リンゴ、アプリコット、ザクロの木など、農園の果樹はすべて駄目になった」
　人口約３５万人のズリテンのモフタ・ハマディ市長によると、５０世帯ほどが移住した。
　ズリテンの住民は、地下水の氾濫は今に始まったことではないと話す。しかし、現在はかつてない規模で被害が出ているという。
　アブドルハミド・ドベイバ首相は先月、「科学的かつ迅速にこの危機に対応する」と述べ、避難世帯への補償や移住の支援を当局に要請した。
　しかし、湧水の原因についてはいまだ統一の見解が出ていない。
　排水インフラの不備、パイプラインの損傷、冬の豪雨など、さまざまな原因が考えられるとメディアは指摘している。
　世界の他の場所では、海面上昇が沿岸の地下水上昇に関係している。高濃度の塩水が地中深くまで浸透し、軽い淡水を押し上げるからだ。
　一方で、リビア当局はこの湧水と巨大なパイプライン、いわゆる「大人工河」との関連を否定している。これはムアマル・カダフィ政権時代に建設されたもので、南部の砂漠の地下深くにある帯水層の水を、かんがい用に北部沿岸の農業地帯へ運んでいる。
　パイプライン事業の管理会社やリビアの主要な水道・電力会社が総力を挙げて問題の対応に当たっており、国家疾病管理センターも蚊の大群を根絶するために緊急チームを派遣している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/03/15-18:50）

Much of Libya is bone-dry desert but one Mediterranean coastal town is suffering the opposite problem -- its houses and fields have been inundated by a mysterious upsurge of groundwater.
Stagnant water and squishy mud have flooded houses, streets and palm groves around the northwestern town of Zliten, spreading a foul smell and creating breeding grounds for mosquitos.
Many locals have fled their homes, where walls have cracked or collapsed, amid fears of a worsening environmental crisis in the area about 160 kilometres (100 miles) east of the capital Tripoli.
Water began coming out two months ago and still continues to rise and submerge our wells, Mohamad Ali Dioub, owner of a farm some four kilometres from Zliten, told AFP. All my fruit trees -- apple, apricot and pomegranate trees - are dead.
The 60-year-old said he had rented water trucks to pump out the stagnant water and bought loads of sand to dump onto the soggy ground, in an effort to save some of his valuable date palms.
The area's usually sandy and light earth has become muddy, black, and smells bad, said another farmer, Mohamad al-Nouari, whose land has been completely swamped.
Almost 50 families have been relocated, said Moftah Hamadi, the mayor of Zliten, a town of 350,000 people known for its Sufi shrines, al-Asmariya University and palm and olive groves.
Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah vowed this month to remediate this crisis in a scientific and rapid manner and urged authorities to compensate or relocate displaced families.
But there is no consensus yet on what has caused the flooding.
- Stench and mosquitos -
Libya has been plagued by conflict and turmoil since the fall of Moamer Kadhafi's regime in 2011 and is now governed by two rival administrations, based in Tripoli and Benghazi.
Catastrophic floods ravaged Libya's eastern city of Derna in September when two dams collapsed. The gigantic flood surge killed more than 4,300 people and left over 8,000 missing, according to the UN.
Locals in Zliten say the groundwater flooding is not new, and point to reed-covered areas from years-old inundations. But they also say the phenomenon has now hit them on a previously unknown scale.
Media reports have pointed to a variety of possible causes, from poor drainage infrastructure to damaged pipelines and heavy winter rains.
Foreign specialists, including from Britain, Egypt and Greece, have travelled to Zliten, hoping to identify the origin of the problem and find solutions.
Elsewhere in the world, rising sea levels have been linked to coastal groundwater upsurges as dense salt water can seep deep into the ground and push up the lighter freshwater.
Libyan authorities have meanwhile denied any link between the flooding and the so-called Great Man-Made River, a giant Kadhafi-era network of pipes that channels water from an aquifer deep below the southern desert to irrigate coastal farms areas.
The project's management company as well as the country's main water and power utilities have all joined efforts to alleviate the town's ordeal.
And the country's national centre for disease control has dispatched emergency teams, equipment and pesticide to eradicate the mosquito swarms.