Al Wahat District

Al Wahat or The Oases (Arabic: الواحات Al Wāḥāt, English: The Oases), occasionally spelt Al Wahad or Al Wahah (English: The Oasis) is one of the districts of Libya.[2][3][4] Its capital and largest city is Ajdabiya. The district is home to much of Libya's petroleum extraction economic activity.

Al Wahat
الواحات
District
Fatimid castle
Fatimid castle
Map of Libya with Al Wahat district highlighted
Map of Libya with Al Wahat district highlighted
CountryLibya
CapitalAjdabiya
Population
 (2006)
 • Total164,718
 [1]
License Plate Code12, 16, 67

History
Ajdabiya museum

Traditionally Al Wahat was the western part of Cyrenaica. With the division of Libya into ten governorates in 1963, Al Wahat became part of the Misrata Governorate. In the 1973 reorganization it became part of Al Khalji Governorate.[5] In 1983 Al Khalji was divided into a number of baladiyat (districts), with what is now Al Wahat being included in the Ajdabiya baladiyah and the Jalu baladiyah. In the 1988 reorganization, Jalu was subsumed within Ajdabiya baladiyah. The status of the area in the reorganization of 1995 which created thirteen districts is unclear; however, in the 1998 reorganization into twenty-six districts, the name "Al-Wahad" appears as a district for the first time.[3] In 2001 the area was divided between Al Wahat District and Ajdabiya District.[2] In 2007 the former Al Wahat district (area:108,670 km2) was enlarged to include what had been the Ajdabiya District and part of Kufra District.[4] It now has essentially the boundaries that the baladiyah (district) of Ajdabiya did from 1988 to 1995.[6]

Geography

Al Wahat has a short border with Egypt, and borders the following Libyan districts, namely, Butnan in east and northeast, Kufra in south, Jufra in southwest, Sirte in west, Benghazi in north, Marj in north, Jabal al Akhdar and Derna in the north.

The district is located in Cyrenacia which is mostly semi arid in nature. The region receives an annual rainfall of 5 in (130 mm). There are no perennial rivers in the region, but the region is abundant with groundwater aquifers.[7] The largest water course in Libya, Wadi Al Hamim, runs through northern Al Wahat and is thought to be the course of the ancestral Nile.[8][9]

Demographics
Al Wahat District from 2001 to 2007

Per 2006 census, there were totally 54,593 economically active people in the district. There were 20,225 government employees, 6,585 employers, 23,074 first level workers and 024 second level workers. There were 9,586 workers in state administration, 7,212 in agriculture, animal husbandry and forestry, 7,621 in agriculture & hunting, 8,715 in education, 8,517 in private enterprises, 1,820 in health & social work, 4,340 in production, 9,931 in technical work and 492 service workers. The total enrollment in schools was 61,849 and the number of people above secondary stage and less than graduation was 3,882.[10] As per the report from World Health Organization (WHO), there were 2 communicable disease centres, 4 dental clinics, 2 general clinics, 0 in-patient clinics, 10 out-patient clinics, 27 pharmacies, 47 PHC centres, 1 polyclinics, 1 rural clinics and 0 specialized clinics.[11]

Administrative subdivisions

As of the 2007 reorganization, Al Wahat District was subdivided into seventeen Basic People's Congresses, namely, Zueitina, East Ajdabiya, West Ajdabiya, North Ajdabiya, Brega, Bashir, Sultan, al`Arqub, El Agheila, Albydan, Antalat, Marsa Brega, Alguenan, Awjila, Jalu, Jikharra and Maradah. The following major towns are located within Al Wahat District, as of 2007: Ajdabiya, Awjila, Labba, El Agheila, Jalu, Jikharra and Sultan.[4]

References
  1. 2006 Census 164,718 at "Al Wahah - Libyan Population". African Development Bank. Archived from the original on 9 December 2016.; 179,155 at "الواحات (Population statistics 2006: Al-Wahat)" (in Arabic). General Information Authority, Government of Libya. Archived from the original on 30 January 2013.; and Statoids reports 177,047 "Districts of libya". statoids.com. Archived from the original on 11 November 2009. Retrieved 27 October 2009.
  2. "Districts of libya". statoids.com. Archived from the original on 11 November 2009. Retrieved 27 October 2009.
  3. Statesman's Yearbook 2006
  4. "شعبيات الجماهيرية العظمى – Sha'biyat of Great Jamahiriya" (in Arabic). G.P.C.O. of the Government of Libya. Archived from the original on 20 December 2008.
  5. "Map of the ten governorates of Libya" (PDF). Area Handbook for Libya. United States Library of Congress. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 October 2012.
  6. Cartographic Section, Department of Public Information, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (April 1994). Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (Map No. 3787 Rev 1) (PDF) (Map). United Nations. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 June 2003.{{cite map}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. McColl, R. W. (2014). Encyclopedia of World Geography, Volume 1. Infobase Publishing. p. 543. ISBN 9780816072293.
  8. Carmignani, Luigi; Salvini, Riccardo; Bonciani, Filippo (2009). "Did the Nile River flow to the Gulf of Sirt during the late Miocene?". Bollettino della Societa Geologica Italiana (Italian Journal of Geoscience). 128 (2): 403–408. doi:10.3301/IJG.2009.128.2.403 (inactive 2023-08-01).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of August 2023 (link)
  9. Salvini, Riccardo; Carmignani, Luigi; Francionib, Mirko; Casazzaa, Paolo (2015). "Elevation modelling and palaeo-environmental interpretation in the Siwa area (Egypt): Application of SAR interferometry and radargrammetry to COSMO-SkyMed imagery". Catena. 129: 46–62. doi:10.1016/j.catena.2015.02.017. hdl:10871/20327.
  10. "Census of Libya". African Development Bank (from source General Information Authority, Libya). 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  11. "Health statistics of Libya". World Health Organization (WHO). 2007. Retrieved 17 November 2016.

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