Network of pipes that supplies water to the north of Libya
Schematic drawing of the project. Note that different routes have been proposed for the not-yet-implemented phases (dashed). Tobruk may for instance end up connected to Ajdabiya instead of to the Jaghboub well field.
TheGreat Man-Made River (GMMR,Arabic:النهر الصناعي العظيم,romanized: an-nahr aṣ-ṣināʿiyy al-ʿaẓīm,Italian:Grande fiume artificiale) is a network of pipes that suppliesfresh water obtained from theNubian Sandstone Aquifer Systemfossil aquifer acrossLibya. It is the world's largestirrigation project.[1] The project utilizes a pipeline system that pumps water from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System from southern Libya to cities in the populous Libyan northern Mediterranean coast including Tripoli and Benghazi. The water covers a distance of up to 1,600 kilometers and provides 70% of all fresh water used in Libya.[2]
Transport of pipe segments in the 1980s.Trench digging in the 1980s.False-color image of theGrand Omar Mukhtar reservoir project south of Benghazi. Water (dark blue) residing in reservoirs appears twice in this image, in the upper right and at the bottom. Vegetation appears red, cityscape structures such as pavement and buildings appear in gray, bare ground appears tan or beige.
In 1953, efforts to findoil in southern Libya led to the discovery of large quantities of potablefossil water underground. The Great Man-Made River Project (GMRP) was conceived in the late 1960s and work on the project began in 1984. The project's construction was divided into five phases. The first phase required 85 million m³ of excavation and was inaugurated on 28 August 1991. The second phase (dubbedFirst water to Tripoli) was inaugurated on 1 September 1996.
The project is owned by the Great Man-Made River Project Authority and was funded by theGaddafi government. The primary contractor for the first phases was Dong Ah Consortium (a South Korean company) and the present main contractor is Al Nahr Company Ltd.
Imported goods which were destined for use in the construction of the GMR were made in Korea and Europe (mainly in Italy) and arrived by sea via the entry port ofBrega (Gulf of Sidra). Cathodic corrosion protection on the pipeline was supplied by an Australian company, AMAC Corrosion Protection, based in Melbourne and delivered via the port of Benghazi.[5] The rest of the material was made in Libya.
The total cost of the GMRP was projected at more thanUS$25 billion.[6] Libya has completed the work to date[when?] without the financial support of major countries or loans from world banks. Since 1990,UNESCO has provided training to engineers and technicians involved with the project.
The fossilaquifer from which this water is being supplied is the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System. It accumulated during the lastice age and is not currently being replenished. If 2007 rates of retrieval are not increased, the water could last a thousand years.[7][8] Other estimates indicate that the aquifer could be depleted of water in as soon as 60 to 100 years.[9] Analysts say that the costs of the $25 billion groundwater extraction system are 10% those of desalination.[10]
In this project 1 billion euros were invested for the installation of 50,000 artificial palm trees for water condensation. This project was carried out by the Spanish engineer Antonio Ibáñez de Alba.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]
On 22 July 2011, during theFirst Libyan Civil War and theforeign military intervention, one of the two plants making pipes for the project, the Brega Plant, was hit by aNATO air strike.[18] At a press conference on 26 July, NATO claimed that rockets had been fired from within the plant area, and that military materiel, includingmultiple rocket launchers, was stored there according tointelligence findings, presenting two photos of anBM-21 MRL as sole evidence for the destruction of the factory. The evidence for a potential UN resolutions breach has been insufficient.[19]
During theSecond Libyan Civil War from 2014 to 2020, the water infrastructure suffered neglect and occasional breakdowns. As of July 2019, 101 of 479 wells on the western pipeline system had been dismantled.[20]
On 10 April 2020, a station controlling water flow to Tripoli and neighboring towns was seized by an unknown armed group. The flow of water was cut to over two million people as a result, and as such the attack was condemned by the United Nations on humanitarian grounds.[21]
3 October 1983: TheGeneral People's Congress held an extraordinary session to draft the resolutions of theBasic People's Congresses, which decided to fund and execute the Great Man-Made River Project.
28 August 1984: Muammar Gaddafi laid the foundation stone in Sarir area for the commencement of the construction of the Great Man-Made River Project.
28 August 1986: Muammar Gaddafi inaugurated the Brega plant for the production of the pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipes, which are considered the largest pipes made with pre-stressed steel wire (the majority of steel wire was made inItaly by the Redaelli Tecna S.p.A. company with its head office in Cologno Monzese-Milan and its factory in Caivano-Naples). TheSarir plant was also inaugurated on this date.
26 August 1989: Muammar Gaddafi laid the foundation stone for phase two of the Great Man-Made River Project.
^"NATO bombs the Great Man-Made River". Human Rights Investigations Blog. 27 July 2013. Archived from the original on 7 June 2015. Retrieved25 October 2011.
