A North African country known for its dry climate and water scarcity is pinning its hopes on an impressive network of pipes and reservoirs to meet its irrigation needs.
The Great Man-Made River (GMMR) is a monumental infrastructure project spanning Libya, with an estimated budget of $25 billion, to channel high-quality freshwater from ancient aquifers beneath the Sahara Desert to the country's coastal areas, where the majority of the country's population lives.
Although the megaproject has faced many obstacles in recent years, it remains a vital source of water for the Libyan people.
What is a great man-made river?
The Great Man-Made River is a large-scale irrigation and water supply project intended to transport freshwater from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System in the Sahara Desert to the Libyan coast for domestic, agricultural and industrial use.
The system's discovery in the 1950s coincided with the discovery of the country's oil reserves, and when the Gaddafi regime came to power in 1969, developing it as a reliable source of water for Libya's major cities became an attractive alternative to overexploited coastal aquifers and expensive desalination processes.
Pipe for the Great Man-made River at the Brega Pipe Factory in Brega, Libya, in May 2000. According to the Great Man-made River Authority, the material used to make the GMMR pipe is enough to build “20 Great Pyramids of Giza.” Learn more: Reza/Getty Images
According to the Grand Man-Made Rivers Management Authority (GMMRA), which was awarded the contract to build the project in 1983, the importance of the GMMR is “of a vital and strategic nature” as it could be “the only solution to the Libyan nation's water shortage problems for drinking, irrigation and industry.”
The project's sheer scale led the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, to call it the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” and the title is not without merit.
The GMMRA estimates that around 5 million tonnes of cement was used to make the pipe, that the raw materials used were enough to build “20 Great Pyramids of Giza”, and that the steel wire used to make the pipe was “long enough to circle the Earth 280 times”.
Korean workers have lunch at the construction site of the Great Man-Made River in the Libyan Sahara Desert in May 2000. Construction on the project, with an estimated budget of $25 billion, began in 1984 and since then it has proven a vital source of fresh water for Libya's coastal residents. Details Reza/Getty Images
According to GMMRA, the pipe network spans approximately 1,750 miles and is designed to transport approximately 6.5 million cubic meters of fresh groundwater per day when fully operational.
What stage is the project at?
Since the GMMR first delivered water in 1989, the project has played a vital role in providing water to Libya's populous coastal areas, which previously suffered from extreme water shortages.
However, GMMR also encountered many obstacles that prevented it from reaching its full potential.
A memorial made from a section of pipe from the Great Man-made River in Tripoli, Libya. The pipeline is made from pieces of 4-metre diameter conduit, and the network stretches over some 1,750 miles. A memorial made from a section of pipe from the Great Man-made River in Tripoli, Libya. The pipeline is made from pieces of 4-metre diameter conduit, and the network stretches over some 1,750 miles. Vivian Sharp/Getty Images
According to Middle East Eye, about 70 percent of the project was completed when the Libyan uprising began in early 2011.
Later, as the civil war continued between Gaddafi's forces and Western-backed rebels, a water pipe factory in Brega that manufactured cylindrical pipes for the GMMR was destroyed in a NATO airstrike on the pretext that it was a government “military storage” facility.
At the time, one of the project leaders, Abdel Hakim El Shwedi, said it would be a “major setback” for the future of the GMMR.
As a result of the civil war and subsequent instability that has plagued the country, much of the existing section of the GMMR is in ruins, and the project is stalled at three of its four stages.
BREGA, Libya – March 2000: A portrait of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as a construction worker is on display at the Great Man-Made River Project's pipe manufacturing factory in Brega, Libya. BREGA, Libya – March 2000: A portrait of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as a construction worker is on display at the Great Man-Made River Project's pipe manufacturing factory in Brega, Libya. Reza/Getty Images
Libya's water authority director, Abdullah El Sunni, told Reuters in an interview that by 2019, 101 of the western pipeline system's 479 wells had been removed.
Newsweek has reached out to GMMRA to inquire about the project's current status.
Malak al-Tayeb, a Paris-based researcher and former adjunct fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, spoke to Newsweek about GMMR.
Al-Tayeb said that while the war itself halted most of the projects, the change in Libya's leadership in 2011 also dealt a blow to subsequent developments.
“I consider the Great Manmade Project to be a megaproject that was politically dependent on the former regime to maintain its existence and function,” Al-Tayeb said. “It received a lot of support from the Gaddafi regime in terms of financial flows and security for the construction and network.”
She further said the unstable security situation that has plagued Libya since 2011 has prevented foreign companies from discussing or contributing to the completion of the GMMR.
What does the future hold for Libya's water supplies?
Far from Gaddafi's dream of making Libya's desert “green as the flag of the Libyan Jamahiriya”, the GMMR has exposed the precariousness of the country's water supply in the face of ongoing political turmoil.
According to the Atlantic Council, “the lack of a comprehensive water policy or plan has left Libya facing severe water shortages that may jeopardize its ability to provide water to its people.”
Al-Tayeb told Newsweek that water scarcity has become a “new reality” for Libyans today, and the problems facing the GMMR have made the country realize the need for alternative sources to meet its water needs.
“I think there is a recognition that relying solely on this project is risky and that alternative water sources are essential to meet growing demand and ensure water security for people,” Altayeb said, adding that the groundwater in the Nubian Aquifer is itself a non-renewable resource.
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