The paper highlights the need to understand and recognize the importance of achieving sustainable and efficient industrial water use to meet the ever-growing socioeconomic needs of an expanding industrialization. It addresses the issues such as integration of desalination into a national water management plan, growing national and international pressures to reduce the environmental damage associated with liberal water consumption and the need for greater efficiency in industrial water use in order to reduce costs, enhance competitiveness and conserve water resources. The paper presents analyses of the results from strategic responses of a comprehensive survey of the Libyan water utilization efficiency problem in the industrial sector and suggests solutions using eight themes and 16 issues to highlight the main problems, critical issues, feasible solutions, and possible policy approaches to dealing with them. The results from a limited case study in Libya demonstrates that there is a need to improve both task-oriented and self-oriented behavior through intensive training using work-place-based National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ), such as the NVQ in the UK. A need to develop a strategy to integrate desalination into the national water management plan is also indicated. Many of the problems discussed are common to other countries in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA).