Great Manmade River
Encyclopedia
The Great Man-Made River (GMR) is a network of pipes that supplies water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

 from the Sahara Desert in Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

, from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System
Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System
The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System is the world’s largest known fossil water aquifer system. It is located underground in the Eastern end of the Sahara Desert and spans the political boundaries of four countries in north-eastern Africa...

 fossil aquifer
Fossil water
Fossil water or paleowater is groundwater that has remained sealed in an aquifer for a long period of time. Water can rest underground in "fossil aquifers" for thousands or even millions of years...

. It is the world's largest irrigation project.

According to its website, it is the largest underground network of pipe
Pipe
Pipe may refer to:* Pipe , a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules* Smoking pipe* Pipe or butt, a cask measurement* Pipe , a type of metal casting defect...

s (2820 km) and aqueducts in the world. It consists of more than 1,300 well
Water well
A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...

s, most more than 500 m deep
Depth in a well
In the oil and gas industry, depth in a well is the measurement, for any point in that well, of the distance between a reference point or elevation, and that point...

, and supplies 6,500,000 m3 of fresh water
Fresh Water
Fresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve...

 per day to the cities of Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...

, Benghazi
Benghazi
Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...

, Sirte
Sirte
Sirte is a city in LibyaSirte may also refer to:* Sirte Declaration, a 1999 resolution to create the African Union* Sirte Oil Company, a Libyan oil companyIn geography:* Gulf of Sirte, alias for Gulf of Sidra on Libya's coast...

 and elsewhere. The late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...

 described it as the "Eighth Wonder of the World
Eighth Wonder of the World
Eighth Wonder of the World is a term sometimes used to describe things in comparison to the Seven Wonders of the World, the widely-known list of seven remarkable constructions of classical antiquity.-Natural places:...

."

History

In 1953, efforts to find oil
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

 in southern Libya led to the discovery of large quantities of fresh 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 (dubbed First water to Tripoli) was inaugurated on 1 September 1996.

The project is owned by the Great Man-Made River Project Authority and funded by the Gaddafi government. Brown & Root and Price Brothers were responsible for the original design, and the primary contractor for the first phases was Dong Ah Consortium and the present main contractor is Al Nahr Company Ltd. This company was registered in England and Wales
England and Wales
England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...

 as a foreign company FC017848 until 31 July 2003.

The imported goods from several countries worldwide (such as Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan, etc.) destined to the construction of the GMR arrived by sea via the entry port of Brega
Brega
Brega may refer to:*Brega , an inhabited location in Libya**Marsa Brega Airport, the airport for Brega-People:...

 (Gulf of Sidra
Gulf of Sidra
Gulf of Sidra is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea on the northern coast of Libya; it is also known as Gulf of Sirte or the Great Sirte or Greater Syrtis .- Geography :The Gulf of Sidra has been a major centre for tuna fishing in the Mediterranean for centuries...

).

The total cost of the project is projected at more than US$25 billion. Libya claims to have completed the work to date without the financial support of major countries or loans from world banks. Since 1990 UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 has provided training to engineers and technicians involved with the project.

The fossil aquifer
Aquifer
An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology...

 from which this water is being supplied is the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System
Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System
The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System is the world’s largest known fossil water aquifer system. It is located underground in the Eastern end of the Sahara Desert and spans the political boundaries of four countries in north-eastern Africa...

. It accumulated during the last ice age and is not currently being replenished. If 2007 rates of retrieval are not increased, the water could last a thousand years.

A large, recently-settled lawsuit between the Libyan government and Brasoil, a subsidiary of the Brazilian national oil company
Petrobras
Petróleo Brasileiro or Petrobras is a semi-public Brazilian multinational energy corporation headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest company in Latin America by market capitalization and revenue, and the largest company headquartered in the Southern Hemisphere by market...

, arose from the project. Brasoil was contracted to drill many of the wells in the early stages of the project.

On 22 July, during the 2011 Libyan civil war
2011 Libyan civil war
The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in the North African state of Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security...

, one of the two plants making pipes for the project, the Brega Plant, was hit by a NATO air strike. At a press conference on 26 July, NATO explained that rockets had been fired from within the plant area, and that military material, including multiple rocket launcher
Multiple rocket launcher
A multiple rocket launcher is a type of unguided rocket artillery system. Like other rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers are less accurate and have a much lower rate of fire than batteries of traditional artillery guns...

s, was stored there according to intelligence
Military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....

 findings, presenting a photo showing at BM-21
BM-21
The BM-21 launch vehicle , a Soviet truck-mounted 122 mm multiple rocket launcher, and a M-21OF rocket were developed in the early 1960s. BM stands for boyevaya mashina, ‘combat vehicle’, and the nickname means ‘hail’. The complete system with the BM-21 launch vehicle and the M-21OF rocket...

 MRL as an example.

Timeline

  • 3 October 1983: The General People's Congress held an extraordinary session to draft the resolutions of the basic people's Congresses, which decided to fund and execute the Great Man-Made River Project.

  • 28 August 1984: Muammar Gaddafi lays 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 in Italy
    Italy
    Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

     by the Redaelli Tecna S.p.A. company with its head office in Cologno Monzese-Milan
    Milan
    Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

     and its factory in Caivano-Naples
    Naples
    Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

    ). The Sarir
    Sarir field
    The Sarir Field was discovered in southern Cyrenaica during 1961 and is considered to be the largest oil field in Libya, with estimated oil reserves of...

     plant was also inaugurated on this date.

  • 26 August 1989: Muammar Gaddafi lays the foundation stone for phase two of the Great Man-Made River Project.

First water arrival

  • 11 September 1989: to Ajdabiya
    Ajdabiya
    Ajdabiya was one of the districts of Libya. It lay in the northeastern part of the country. Its capital was Ajdabiya. As of 2007 it was subsumed within the enlarged Al Wahat District....

     reservoir.
  • 28 September 1989: to Grand Omar Muktar reservoir.
  • 4 September 1991: to Ghardabiya
    Ghardabiya
    Ghardabiya is a dual-function airbase for the Libyan Air Force south of the city of Sirte. It also incorporates an airport for civilian use.-Military Use:...

     reservoir.
  • 28 August 1996: to Tripoli.
  • 28 September 2007: to Gharyan
    Gharyan
    Gharyan District or Garian District was one of the districts of Libya. It was located in the northwest part of the country and its capital was Gharyan. Under the 2007 reorganization of districts, it became part of Jabal al Gharbi District....

    .

External links

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