Irrigation system in the Libyan desert
In the desert regions of southern Libya there exists a great man-made river, a complex network of irrigation water pipes recognized by Guinness World Records in 2008 as the largest irrigation project in the world. Circles of man-made oases scattered across arid regions and desert coasts are the result of watering machines connected to an irrigation system.
In 1953, during geological exploration for oil fields, gigantic underground reserves of drinking water were discovered in southern Libya, after which in the 60s the idea of building an irrigation system in this area arose.
Work on the project to attack the Sahara Desert began in 1984. The huge irrigation system included more than 1,300 wells with a depth of 1 to 3 km, from which water is delivered to the surface and distributed through large canals. The diameter of the circular fields over which the irrigation machines rotate varies from several hundred meters to 3 km.
Gaddafi's most ambitious project is the Great Man-Made River. The media kept quiet about this Libyan project
The Great Manmade River (GMR) is a complex network of water conduits that supplies desert areas and the coast of Libya with water from the Nubian Aquifer. By some estimates, this is the largest engineering project in existence. This huge system of pipes and aqueducts, which also includes more than 1,300 wells more than 500 meters deep, supplies the cities of Tripoli, Benghazi, Sirte and others, supplying 6,500,000 m³ of drinking water per day. Muammar Gaddafi called this river the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” In 2008, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized the Great Man-Made River as the largest irrigation project in the world.
September 1, 2010 is the anniversary of the opening of the main section of the Great Libyan artificial river. The world media kept quiet about this Libyan project, but by the way, this project surpasses the largest construction projects. Its cost is 25 billion US dollars.
Back in the 80s, Gaddafi began a large-scale project to create a network of water resources, which was supposed to cover Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Chad. To date, this project has almost been completed.
The task was, it must be said, historical for the entire North African region, because the problem of water has been relevant here since the times of Phenicia. And, more importantly, not a single penny from the IMF was spent on a project that could have turned the whole of North Africa into a blooming garden. It is with the latter fact that some analysts associate the current destabilization of the situation in the region.
The desire for a global monopoly on water resources is already the most important factor in world politics. And in the south of Libya there are four giant water reservoirs (oases of Kufra, Sirt, Morzuk and Hamada). According to some data, they contain an average of 35,000 cubic meters. kilometers (!) of water. To imagine this volume, it is enough to imagine the entire territory of Germany as a huge lake 100 meters deep. Such water resources are undoubtedly of particular interest. And perhaps he has more than an interest in Libyan oil.
This water project was called the “Eighth Wonder of the World” due to its scale. It provides a daily flow of 6.5 million cubic meters of water through the desert, greatly increasing the area of irrigated land. 4 thousand kilometers of pipes buried deep in the ground due to the heat. Underground water is pumped through 270 shafts from hundreds of meters deep. A cubic meter of the purest water from Libyan reservoirs, taking into account all costs, can cost 35 cents. This is the approximate cost of a cubic meter of cold water in Moscow. If we take the cost of a European cubic meter (about 2 euros), then the value of water reserves in Libyan reservoirs is 58 billion euros.
The idea of extracting water hidden deep under the surface of the Sahara Desert appeared back in 1983. In Libya, like its Egyptian neighbor, only 4 percent of the territory is suitable for human life; the remaining 96 percent is dominated by sand. Once upon a time, on the territory of modern Jamahiriya there were riverbeds that flowed into the Mediterranean Sea. These channels dried up long ago, but scientists were able to establish that at a depth of 500 meters underground there are huge reserves - up to 12 thousand cubic km of fresh water. Its age exceeds 8.5 thousand years, and it makes up the lion's share of all sources in the country, leaving a paltry 2.3% for surface water and a little more than 1 percent for desalinated water. Simple calculations showed that the creation of a hydraulic system that would allow pumping water from Southern Europe would give Libya 0.74 cubic meters of water per Libyan dinar. Delivery of life-giving moisture by sea will bring benefits of up to 1.05 cubic meters per dinar. Desalination, which also requires powerful, expensive installations, is losing significantly, and only the development of the “Great Man-Made River” will make it possible to obtain nine cubic meters from each dinar. The project is still far from complete completion - the second phase is currently underway, which involves laying the third and fourth stages of pipelines hundreds of kilometers inland and installing hundreds of deep-water wells. A total of 1,149 such wells were planned, including more than 400 that still had to be built. Over the past years, 1,926 km of pipes have been laid, with another 1,732 km ahead. Each 7.5-meter steel pipe reaches a diameter of four meters and weighs up to 83 tons, and in total there are more than 530.5 thousand such pipes. The total cost of the project is $25 billion. As Libyan Minister of Agriculture Abdel Majid al-Matrouh told reporters, the bulk of the extracted water - 70% - goes to the needs of agriculture, 28% - to the population, and the rest goes to industry.
“According to the latest research by experts from southern Europe and northern Africa, water from underground sources would last for another 5,000 years, although the average life of all equipment, including pipes, is designed for 50 years,” he said.
The man-made river now irrigates about 160 thousand hectares of the country, which is being actively developed for agriculture. And hundreds of kilometers to the south, on the routes of camel caravans, water trenches brought to the surface of the earth serve as a transshipment point and resting place for people and animals. Looking at the result of the work of human thought in Libya, it is difficult to believe that Egypt, which is experiencing the same problems, suffers from overpopulation and cannot in any way share the resources of the Nile with its southern neighbors. Meanwhile, on the territory of the Country of Pyramids, countless reserves of life-giving moisture are also hidden underground, which for desert inhabitants is more valuable than all treasures.
With its water project, Libya could start a real green revolution. Literally, of course, which would solve a lot of food problems in Africa. And most importantly, it would ensure stability and economic independence. Moreover, there are already known cases when global corporations blocked water projects in the region. The World Bank and the IMF, for example, blocked the construction of a canal on the White Nile - Jonglei Canal - in southern Sudan, which was started there and abandoned after American intelligence services provoked the growth of separatism there. It is, of course, much more profitable for the IMF and global cartels to impose their own expensive projects, such as desalination. An independent Libyan project did not fit into their plans. Compare with neighboring Egypt, where for the last 20 years all irrigation and water supply improvement projects have been sabotaged by the International Monetary Fund behind them. Gaddafi called on Egyptian farmers, 55 million of whom live in the crowded region along the banks of the Nile, to come and work in the fields of Libya. 95% of Libya's land is desert. The new artificial river opens up enormous opportunities for the development of this land. Libya's own water project was a slap in the face to the World Bank and IMF and the entire West. The World Bank and the US State Department support only their own projects: the ``Middle East Water Summit`` in November (2010) in Turkey, which only considers seawater desalinization projects in Saudi Arabia at a cost of $4 a cubic meter. The United States benefits from a shortage of water - it increases the price of it. Washington and London were almost apoplectic when they learned about the opening of a project in Libya. Everything needed for the project was produced in Libya itself. Nothing was purchased from the "first world" countries, which help developing countries rise from their lying position only if they can benefit themselves from it
The United States was vigilant to ensure that no one dared to help Libya.
The USSR could no longer help, since it itself was giving up its last breath, while the West was selling desalinized salt water to Libya at a price of $3.75. Now Libya no longer buys water from Western countries. Scientists estimate water reserves equivalent to 200 years of flow of the Nile River. The goal of the Gaddafi government was to make Libya a source of agricultural abundance. The project has been operating for a long time. The only articles in the English-language press were Underground "Fossil Water" Running Out, National Geographic, May 2010 and Libya turns on the Great Man-Made River, by Marcia Merry, Printed in the Executive Intelligence Review, September 1991.
Gaddafi, speaking at the opening ceremony of the next section of the artificial water river on September 1, 2010, said: “After this achievement of the Libyan people, the US threat against Libya will double!” - `After this achievement, American threats against Libya will double... - It was like looking into water! Gaddafi said further: “The United States will do everything under a different pretext, but the real reason will, as always, be the desire to keep the people of Libya oppressed and in a colonial position.”
Maghreb-Nachrichten from 03/20/2009 reports: “At the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul, the Libyan authorities presented for the first time a water supply project worth 25 billion dollars. The project has been called the “eighth wonder of the world” because it involves the creation of an artificial river that would supply drinking water to the population of northern Libya. The work has been carried out since the 80s. under the leadership of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. And now the project is 2/3 completed. The water pipeline should stretch for 4,000 km, and through it water from underground reservoirs under the desert will flow to the north. Research has shown that this project is more economical than alternative options. According to calculations, water reserves will last for 4,860 years if the interested states, Libya, Sudan, Chad and Egypt, use the water as envisaged in the project.”
At one time, Gaddafi said that the Libyan water project would be “the strongest response to America, which accuses Libya of supporting terrorism.” Mubarak was also a big supporter of this project. Are there too many coincidences? After this, all other explanations of modern events seem somehow not very convincing...
These areas, already beginning to dry out, (from satellite) after the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime
The largest engineering and construction project of our time is considered to be The Great Manmade River - a huge underground network of water pipelines that daily supplies 6.5 million cubic meters of drinking water to populated areas in the desert regions and coast of Libya. The project is incredibly significant for this country, but it also gives reasons to look at the former leader of the Libyan Jamahiriya, Muammar Gaddafi, in a slightly different light from that painted by the Western media. Perhaps this is precisely what can explain the fact that the implementation of this project was practically not covered by the media.
The eighth wonder of the world
The total length of underground communications of the artificial river is close to four thousand kilometers. The volume of soil excavated and transferred during construction - 155 million cubic meters - is 12 times more than during the creation of the Aswan Dam. And the building materials spent would be enough to build 16 Cheops pyramids. In addition to pipes and aqueducts, the system includes over 1,300 wells, most of which are more than 500 meters deep. The total depth of the wells is 70 times the height of Everest.
The main branches of the water pipeline consist of concrete pipes 7.5 meters long, 4 meters in diameter and weighing more than 80 tons (up to 83 tons). And each of over 530 thousand of these pipes could easily serve as a tunnel for subway trains.
From the main pipes, water flows into reservoirs built near cities with a volume of 4 to 24 million cubic meters, and from them the local water supply systems of cities and towns begin. Fresh water enters the water supply system from underground sources located in the south of the country and feeds settlements concentrated mainly off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, including the largest cities of Libya - Tripoli, Benghazi, Sirte. The water is drawn from the Nubian Aquifer, which is the largest known source of fossil fresh water in the world. The Nubian Aquifer is located in the eastern Sahara Desert over an area of more than two million square kilometers and contains 11 large underground reservoirs. The territory of Libya is located above four of them. In addition to Libya, several other African states are located on the Nubian layer, including northwestern Sudan, northeastern Chad and most of Egypt.
The Nubian aquifer was discovered in 1953 by British geologists while searching for oil fields. The fresh water in it is hidden under a layer of hard ferruginous sandstone from 100 to 500 meters thick and, as scientists have established, accumulated underground during the period when fertile savannas stretched in place of the Sahara, irrigated by frequent heavy rains. Most of this water was accumulated between 38 and 14 thousand years ago, although some reservoirs formed relatively recently - around 5000 BC. When the planet's climate changed dramatically three thousand years ago, the Sahara became a desert, but the water that had seeped into the ground over thousands of years had already accumulated in underground horizons.
After the discovery of huge reserves of fresh water, projects for the construction of an irrigation system immediately appeared. However, the idea was realized much later and only thanks to the Government of Muammar Gaddafi. The project involved the creation of a water pipeline to deliver water from underground reservoirs from the south to the north of the country, to the industrial and more populated part of Libya. In October 1983, Project Management was created and funding began. The total cost of the project at the start of construction was estimated at $25 billion, and the planned implementation period was at least 25 years. Construction was divided into five phases: the first - the construction of a pipe plant and a 1,200-kilometer-long pipeline with a daily supply of two million cubic meters of water to Benghazi and Sirte; the second is to bring pipelines to Tripoli and provide it with daily supplies of one million cubic meters of water; third - completion of the construction of a water pipeline from the Kufra oasis to Benghazi; the last two are the construction of the western branch to the city of Tobruk and the unification of the branches into a single system near the city of Sirte.
The fields created by the Great Man-Made River are clearly visible from space: in satellite images they appear as bright green circles scattered among grey-yellow desert areas.
Direct construction work began in 1984 - on August 28, Muammar Gaddafi laid the first stone of the project. The cost of the first phase of the project was estimated at $5 billion. The construction of a unique, world's first plant for the production of giant pipes in Libya was carried out by South Korean specialists using modern technologies. Specialists from the world's leading companies from the USA, Turkey, Great Britain, Japan and Germany came to the country. The latest equipment was purchased. To lay concrete pipes, 3,700 kilometers of roads were built, allowing heavy equipment to move. Migrant labor from Bangladesh, the Philippines and Vietnam was used as the main unskilled labor force.
In 1989, water entered the Ajdabiya and Grand Omar Muktar reservoirs, and in 1991 - into the Al-Ghardabiya reservoir. The first and largest stage was officially opened in August 1991 - water supply began to such large cities as Sirte and Benghazi. Already in August 1996, regular water supply was established in the capital of Libya, Tripoli.
As a result, the Libyan government spent $33 billion on the creation of the eighth wonder of the world, and the financing was carried out without international loans or IMF support. Recognizing the right to water supply as a fundamental human right, the Libyan government did not charge the population for water. The government also tried not to purchase anything for the project in the “first world” countries, but to produce everything necessary within the country. All materials used for the project were locally produced, and the plant, built in the city of Al-Buraika, produced more than half a million pipes with a diameter of four meters from prestressed reinforced concrete.
Before the construction of the water pipeline began, 96% of Libya's territory was desert, and only 4% of the land was suitable for human life. After the project was fully completed, it was planned to supply water and cultivate 155 thousand hectares of land. By 2011, it was possible to establish supplies of 6.5 million cubic meters of fresh water to the cities of Libya, providing it to 4.5 million people. At the same time, 70% of the water produced by Libya was consumed in the agricultural sector, 28% by the population, and the rest by industry. But the government’s goal was not only to fully provide the population with fresh water, but also to reduce Libya’s dependence on imported food, and in the future, the country’s entry into completely its own food production. With the development of water supply, large agricultural farms were built to produce wheat, oats, corn and barley, which had previously only been imported. Thanks to watering machines connected to the irrigation system, circles of man-made oases and fields with a diameter ranging from several hundred meters to three kilometers have grown in the arid regions of the country.
Measures were also taken to encourage Libyans to move to the south of the country, to the farms created in the desert. However, not all of the local population moved willingly, preferring to live in the northern coastal areas. Therefore, the country's government turned to Egyptian peasants with an invitation to come to Libya to work. After all, the population of Libya is only 6 million people, while in Egypt there are more than 80 million, living mainly along the Nile. The water pipeline also made it possible to organize in the Sahara, along the routes of camel caravans, resting places for people and animals with water trenches (aryks) brought to the surface. Libya has even begun supplying water to neighboring Egypt.
Compared to Soviet irrigation projects implemented in Central Asia to irrigate cotton fields, the man-made river project had a number of fundamental differences. Firstly, to irrigate Libyan agricultural land, a huge underground source was used, rather than a surface and relatively small, compared to the volumes taken. As everyone probably knows, the result of the Central Asian project was the Aral environmental disaster. Secondly, in Libya, water losses during transportation were eliminated, since delivery took place in a closed way, which eliminated evaporation. Devoid of these shortcomings, the created water supply system became an advanced system for supplying water to arid regions.
When Gaddafi first started his project, he became the target of constant ridicule from the Western media. It was then that the derogatory stamp “dream in a pipe” appeared in the media of the States and Britain. But 20 years later, in one of the rare materials dedicated to the success of the project, National Geographic magazine recognized it as “epoch-making.” By this time, engineers from all over the world were coming to the country to gain Libyan experience in hydraulic engineering. Since 1990, UNESCO has provided assistance in supporting and training engineers and technicians. Gaddafi described the water project as “the strongest answer to America, which accuses Libya of supporting terrorism, saying that we are not capable of anything else.”
In 1999, the Great Man-Made River was awarded the International Water Prize by UNESCO, an award that recognizes outstanding research work on the use of water in dry areas.
It's not beer that kills people...
On September 1, 2010, speaking at the opening ceremony of the next section of the artificial water river, Muammar Gaddafi said: “After this achievement of the Libyan people, the US threat against Libya will double. The US will try to do everything under any other pretext, but the real reason will be to stop this achievement in order to leave the people of Libya oppressed.” Gaddafi turned out to be a prophet: as a result of the civil war and foreign intervention provoked a few months after this speech, the leader of Libya was overthrown and killed without trial. In addition, as a result of the unrest in 2011, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, one of the few leaders who supported Gaddafi’s project, was removed from office.
By the beginning of the war in 2011, three stages of the Great Man-Made River had already been completed. Construction of the last two stages was scheduled to continue over the next 20 years. However, NATO bombing caused significant damage to the water supply system and destroyed the pipe production plant for its construction and repair. Many foreign citizens who worked on the project in Libya for decades have left the country. Because of the war, the water supply for 70% of the population was disrupted, and the irrigation system was damaged. And the bombing of power supply systems by NATO planes deprived of water supply even to those regions where the pipes remained untouched.
Of course, we cannot say that the true reason for Gaddafi’s murder was his water project, but the Libyan leader’s fears were well founded: today water is emerging as the planet’s main strategic resource.
Unlike the same oil, water is a necessary and primary condition of life. The average person can live without water for no more than 5 days. According to the UN, by the beginning of the 2000s, more than 1.2 billion people lived in conditions of constant fresh water shortage, and about 2 billion suffered from it regularly. By 2025, the number of people living with chronic water shortages will exceed 3 billion. According to 2007 data from the United Nations Development Program, global water consumption doubles every 20 years, more than twice as fast as human population growth. At the same time, every year there are more and more large deserts around the world, and the amount of usable agricultural land in most areas is less and less, while rivers, lakes and large underground aquifers around the world are losing their flow. At the same time, the cost of a liter of high-quality bottled water on the world market can reach several euros, which significantly exceeds the cost of a liter of 98 gasoline and, even more so, the price of a liter of crude oil. According to some estimates, the revenues of freshwater companies will soon exceed those of oil companies. And a number of analytical reports on the fresh water market indicate that today more than 600 million people (9% of the world's population) receive water from a dosimeter of private providers and at market prices.
Available fresh water resources have long been in the sphere of interests of transnational corporations. At the same time, the World Bank strongly supports the idea of privatizing fresh water sources, while at the same time doing its best to slow down water projects that dry countries are trying to implement on their own, without the involvement of Western corporations. For example, over the past 20 years, the World Bank and the IMF have sabotaged several projects to improve irrigation and water supply in Egypt, and blocked the construction of a canal on the White Nile in South Sudan.
Against this background, the resources of the Nubian aquifer are of enormous commercial interest to large foreign corporations, and the Libyan project does not seem to fit into the general scheme of private development of water resources. Look at these numbers: the world's fresh water reserves, concentrated in the Earth's rivers and lakes, are estimated at 200 thousand cubic kilometers. Of these, Baikal (the largest freshwater lake) contains 23 thousand cubic kilometers, and all five Great Lakes contain 22.7 thousand. The reserves of the Nubian reservoir are 150 thousand cubic kilometers, that is, they are only 25% less than all the water contained in rivers and lakes. At the same time, we must not forget that most of the planet’s rivers and lakes are heavily polluted. Scientists estimate the reserves of the Nubian Aquifer to be equivalent to two hundred years of flow of the Nile River. If we take the largest underground reserves found in sedimentary rocks under Libya, Algeria and Chad, then they will be enough to cover all these territories with 75 meters of water. It is estimated that these reserves will be enough for 4-5 thousand years of consumption.
Before the water pipeline was put into operation, the cost of desalted seawater purchased by Libya was $3.75 per ton. The construction of its own water supply system allowed Libya to completely abandon imports. At the same time, the sum of all costs for the extraction and transportation of 1 cubic meter of water cost the Libyan state (before the war) 35 American cents, which is 11 times less than before. This was already comparable to the cost of cold tap water in Russian cities. For comparison: the cost of water in European countries is approximately 2 euros.
In this sense, the value of Libyan water reserves turns out to be much higher than the value of the reserves of all its oil fields. Thus, the proven oil reserves in Libya - 5.1 billion tons - at the current price of $400 per ton will amount to about $2 trillion. Compare them with the cost of water: even based on the minimum 35 cents per cubic meter, Libyan water reserves amount to 10-15 trillion dollars (with a total cost of water in the Nubian layer of 55 trillion), that is, they are 5-7 times greater than all Libyan oil reserves . If we start exporting this water in bottled form, the amount will increase many times over.
Therefore, the assertions that the military operation in Libya was nothing more than a “war for water” have quite obvious grounds.
Risks
In addition to the political risks outlined above, the Great Artificial River had at least two more. It was the first major project of its kind, so no one could predict with any certainty what would happen when the aquifers began to deplete. Concerns were expressed that the entire system would simply collapse under its own weight into the resulting voids, which would lead to large-scale ground failures in the territories of several African countries. On the other hand, it was unclear what would happen to the existing natural oases, since many of them were originally fed by underground aquifers. Today, at least the drying up of one of the natural lakes in the Libyan oasis of Kufra is associated precisely with overexploitation of aquifers.
But be that as it may, at the moment the artificial Libyan river is one of the most complex, most expensive and largest engineering projects implemented by mankind, but grew out of the dream of one single person “to make the desert green, like the flag of the Libyan Jamahiriya.”
The Great Man-Made River in Libya is the largest engineering and construction project of our time, thanks to which the country's residents gained access to drinking water and were able to settle in areas where no one had ever lived before. Currently, 6.5 million cubic meters of fresh water pass through underground water pipelines every day, which is also used for the development of agriculture in the region. Read on to see how the construction of this grandiose facility took place.
The eighth wonder of the world
The total length of underground communications of the artificial river is close to four thousand kilometers. The volume of soil excavated and transferred during construction - 155 million cubic meters - is 12 times more than during the creation of the Aswan Dam. And the building materials spent would be enough to build 16 Cheops pyramids. In addition to pipes and aqueducts, the system includes over 1,300 wells, most of which are more than 500 meters deep. The total depth of the wells is 70 times the height of Everest.
The main branches of the water pipeline consist of concrete pipes 7.5 meters long, 4 meters in diameter and weighing more than 80 tons (up to 83 tons). And each of over 530 thousand of these pipes could easily serve as a tunnel for subway trains.
From the main pipes, water flows into reservoirs built near cities with a volume of 4 to 24 million cubic meters, and from them the local water supply systems of cities and towns begin.
Fresh water enters the water supply system from underground sources located in the south of the country and feeds settlements concentrated mainly off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, including the largest cities of Libya - Tripoli, Benghazi, Sirte. The water is drawn from the Nubian Aquifer, which is the largest known source of fossil fresh water in the world.
The Nubian Aquifer is located in the eastern Sahara Desert over an area of more than two million square kilometers and contains 11 large underground reservoirs. The territory of Libya is located above four of them.
In addition to Libya, several other African states are located on the Nubian layer, including northwestern Sudan, northeastern Chad and most of Egypt.
The Nubian aquifer was discovered in 1953 by British geologists while searching for oil fields. The fresh water in it is hidden under a layer of hard ferruginous sandstone from 100 to 500 meters thick and, as scientists have established, accumulated underground during the period when fertile savannas stretched in place of the Sahara, irrigated by frequent heavy rains.
Most of this water was accumulated between 38 and 14 thousand years ago, although some reservoirs formed relatively recently - around 5000 BC. When the planet's climate changed dramatically three thousand years ago, the Sahara became a desert, but the water that had seeped into the ground over thousands of years had already accumulated in underground horizons.
After the discovery of huge reserves of fresh water, projects for the construction of an irrigation system immediately appeared. However, the idea was realized much later and only thanks to the Government of Muammar Gaddafi.
The project involved the creation of a water pipeline to deliver water from underground reservoirs from the south to the north of the country, to the industrial and more populated part of Libya. In October 1983, Project Management was created and funding began. The total cost of the project at the start of construction was estimated at $25 billion, and the planned implementation period was at least 25 years.
Construction was divided into five phases: the first - the construction of a pipe plant and a 1,200-kilometer-long pipeline with a daily supply of two million cubic meters of water to Benghazi and Sirte; the second is to bring pipelines to Tripoli and provide it with daily supplies of one million cubic meters of water; third - completion of the construction of a water pipeline from the Kufra oasis to Benghazi; the last two are the construction of the western branch to the city of Tobruk and the unification of the branches into a single system near the city of Sirte.
The fields created by the Great Man-Made River are clearly visible from space: in satellite images they appear as bright green circles scattered among grey-yellow desert areas. In the photo: cultivated fields near the Kufra oasis.
Direct construction work began in 1984 - on August 28, Muammar Gaddafi laid the first stone of the project. The cost of the first phase of the project was estimated at $5 billion. The construction of a unique, world's first plant for the production of giant pipes in Libya was carried out by South Korean specialists using modern technologies.
Specialists from the world's leading companies from the USA, Turkey, Great Britain, Japan and Germany came to the country. The latest equipment was purchased. To lay concrete pipes, 3,700 kilometers of roads were built, allowing heavy equipment to move. Migrant labor from Bangladesh, the Philippines and Vietnam was used as the main unskilled labor force.
In 1989, water entered the Ajdabiya and Grand Omar Muktar reservoirs, and in 1991 - into the Al-Ghardabiya reservoir. The first and largest stage was officially opened in August 1991 - water supply began to such large cities as Sirte and Benghazi. Already in August 1996, regular water supply was established in the capital of Libya, Tripoli.
As a result, the Libyan government spent $33 billion on the creation of the eighth wonder of the world, and the financing was carried out without international loans or IMF support. Recognizing the right to water supply as a fundamental human right, the Libyan government did not charge the population for water.
The government also tried not to purchase anything for the project in the “first world” countries, but to produce everything necessary within the country. All materials used for the project were locally produced, and the plant, built in the city of Al-Buraika, produced more than half a million pipes with a diameter of four meters from prestressed reinforced concrete.
Before the construction of the water pipeline began, 96% of Libya's territory was desert, and only 4% of the land was suitable for human life.
After the project was fully completed, it was planned to supply water and cultivate 155 thousand hectares of land.
By 2011, it was possible to establish supplies of 6.5 million cubic meters of fresh water to the cities of Libya, providing it to 4.5 million people. At the same time, 70% of the water produced by Libya was consumed in the agricultural sector, 28% by the population, and the rest by industry.
But the government’s goal was not only to fully provide the population with fresh water, but also to reduce Libya’s dependence on imported food, and in the future, the country’s entry into completely its own food production.
With the development of water supply, large agricultural farms were built to produce wheat, oats, corn and barley, which had previously only been imported. Thanks to watering machines connected to the irrigation system, circles of man-made oases and fields with a diameter ranging from several hundred meters to three kilometers have grown in the arid regions of the country.
Measures were also taken to encourage Libyans to move to the south of the country, to the farms created in the desert. However, not all of the local population moved willingly, preferring to live in the northern coastal areas.
Therefore, the country's government turned to Egyptian peasants with an invitation to come to Libya to work. After all, the population of Libya is only 6 million people, while in Egypt there are more than 80 million, living mainly along the Nile. The water pipeline also made it possible to organize in the Sahara, along the routes of camel caravans, resting places for people and animals with water trenches (aryks) brought to the surface.
Libya has even begun supplying water to neighboring Egypt.
Compared to Soviet irrigation projects implemented in Central Asia to irrigate cotton fields, the man-made river project had a number of fundamental differences.
Firstly, to irrigate Libyan agricultural land, a huge underground source was used, rather than a surface and relatively small, compared to the volumes taken. As everyone probably knows, the result of the Central Asian project was the Aral environmental disaster.
Secondly, in Libya, water losses during transportation were eliminated, since delivery took place in a closed way, which eliminated evaporation. Devoid of these shortcomings, the created water supply system became an advanced system for supplying water to arid regions.
When Gaddafi first started his project, he became the target of constant ridicule from the Western media. It was then that the derogatory stamp “dream in a pipe” appeared in the media of the States and Britain.
But 20 years later, in one of the rare materials dedicated to the success of the project, National Geographic magazine recognized it as “epoch-making.” By this time, engineers from all over the world were coming to the country to gain Libyan experience in hydraulic engineering.
Since 1990, UNESCO has provided assistance in supporting and training engineers and technicians. Gaddafi described the water project as “the strongest answer to America, which accuses Libya of supporting terrorism, saying that we are not capable of anything else.”
Available fresh water resources have long been in the sphere of interests of transnational corporations. At the same time, the World Bank strongly supports the idea of privatizing fresh water sources, while at the same time doing its best to slow down water projects that dry countries are trying to implement on their own, without the involvement of Western corporations. For example, over the past 20 years, the World Bank and the IMF have sabotaged several projects to improve irrigation and water supply in Egypt, and blocked the construction of a canal on the White Nile in South Sudan.
Against this background, the resources of the Nubian aquifer are of enormous commercial interest to large foreign corporations, and the Libyan project does not seem to fit into the general scheme of private development of water resources.
Look at these numbers: the world's fresh water reserves, concentrated in the Earth's rivers and lakes, are estimated at 200 thousand cubic kilometers. Of these, Baikal (the largest freshwater lake) contains 23 thousand cubic kilometers, and all five Great Lakes contain 22.7 thousand. The reserves of the Nubian reservoir are 150 thousand cubic kilometers, that is, they are only 25% less than all the water contained in rivers and lakes.
At the same time, we must not forget that most of the planet’s rivers and lakes are heavily polluted. Scientists estimate the reserves of the Nubian Aquifer to be equivalent to two hundred years of flow of the Nile River. If we take the largest underground reserves found in sedimentary rocks under Libya, Algeria and Chad, then they will be enough to cover all these territories with 75 meters of water.
It is estimated that these reserves will be enough for 4-5 thousand years of consumption.
Before the water pipeline was put into operation, the cost of desalted seawater purchased by Libya was $3.75 per ton. The construction of its own water supply system allowed Libya to completely abandon imports.
At the same time, the sum of all costs for the extraction and transportation of 1 cubic meter of water cost the Libyan state (before the war) 35 American cents, which is 11 times less than before. This was already comparable to the cost of cold tap water in Russian cities. For comparison: the cost of water in European countries is approximately 2 euros.
In this sense, the value of Libyan water reserves turns out to be much higher than the value of the reserves of all its oil fields. Thus, the proven oil reserves in Libya - 5.1 billion tons - at the current price of $400 per ton will amount to about $2 trillion.
Compare them with the cost of water: even based on the minimum 35 cents per cubic meter, Libyan water reserves amount to 10-15 trillion dollars (with a total cost of water in the Nubian layer of 55 trillion), that is, they are 5-7 times greater than all Libyan oil reserves . If we start exporting this water in bottled form, the amount will increase many times over.
Therefore, the assertions that the military operation in Libya was nothing more than a “war for water” have quite obvious grounds.
In addition to the political risks outlined above, the Great Artificial River had at least two more. It was the first major project of its kind, so no one could predict with any certainty what would happen when the aquifers began to deplete. Concerns were expressed that the entire system would simply collapse under its own weight into the resulting voids, which would lead to large-scale ground failures in the territories of several African countries. On the other hand, it was unclear what would happen to the existing natural oases, since many of them were originally fed by underground aquifers. Today, at least the drying up of one of the natural lakes in the Libyan oasis of Kufra is associated precisely with overexploitation of aquifers.
But be that as it may, at the moment the artificial Libyan river is one of the most complex, most expensive and largest engineering projects implemented by mankind, but grew out of the dream of one single person “to make the desert green, like the flag of the Libyan Jamahiriya.”
Modern satellite images show that after the bloody American-European aggression, the round fields in Libya are now quickly turning into desert again...
September 2010 marks the anniversary of the opening of the main section of the Great Man-Made River, recognized in 2008 by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest irrigation project in the world. However, for some reason the media stubbornly does not write about this. Although in this case the main thing in this project is not its gigantic scale, but the very purpose of this unique construction. If the project is successfully completed, this Great Man-Made River will transform desert Africa into a green continent like America or Australia. However, will this be a “successful ending”?
Water instead of oil?
When Libya was looking for oil deposits in 1953, it unexpectedly discovered in the south huge reserves of drinking water, which fed the desert oases. And only a few decades later the Libyans realized what a treasure they had found: water, which turned out to be more expensive than black gold. The black continent, always experiencing a shortage of water and therefore having very poor vegetation, had gigantic water reservoirs underneath it - 35 thousand cubic meters of artesian water. There is so much water there that it is possible to completely flood a country like Germany, which has an area of more than 350 thousand sq. km. The reservoir descended to a depth of one hundred meters. If this water floods the entire surface of Africa, then this continent will become a green and blooming garden.
This is what Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi thought about. And no wonder, because almost all of Libya is a desert. And Gaddafi had the idea to develop a very complex system of pipelines that would pump water from the Nubian water reservoir to the driest regions of the country. For this purpose, specialists in such projects were invited from South Korea. And in the city of Al-Buraika they even built a plant that began to produce reinforced concrete pipes with a diameter of four meters. Gaddafi himself inaugurated construction of the pipeline in August 1984.
Gaddafi's Eighth Miracle
It is no coincidence that the man-made river is included in the Guinness Book of Records. Many generally call it the largest engineering construction on our planet. And the Libyan leader himself called it the eighth wonder of the world. Today, this water supply network consists of 1,300 wells, each half a kilometer deep, about four thousand kilometers of underground concrete pipes, a network of pumping stations, reservoirs, and system management and control centers. Every day, about seven million cubic meters of water flow through these four-meter concrete pipes of a man-made river, which supplies several cities at once, including the capital of Libya, then Benghazi, Gharyan, Sirte and others, and also irrigates fields planted right in the middle of the desert. Libya's far-reaching plans included the irrigation of about 150 thousand hectares of cultivated areas, and then Libya intended to connect some other African countries to this system. And at the very end, the Libyans intended to transform their continent from an eternally hungry and beggarly continent into a continent that could not only provide itself with supplies of barley, oats, wheat and corn, but also begin to export these agricultural products. The end of the project was supposed to come within a quarter of a century. But alas...
Expulsion from Eden
Libya has embarked on a revolutionary path. An uprising broke out there early last year, and Muammar Gaddafi died at the hands of the rebels in the fall of 2011. However, there are rumors that the Libyan leader was killed by his own man-made river.
Of course, it would not be at all beneficial for certain major powers that were involved in supplying food to the Dark Continent if Africa acquired independence in this matter, overnight turning into a producer from a consumer. And second: now, when the world’s population has increased greatly, our globe has begun to consume even more fresh water, which has become a very valuable resource. Many European countries are experiencing a shortage of drinking water. And here in Africa, in some Libya, a source of fresh water arose, which is able to provide everyone for several centuries.
Once, opening the next construction site of the Great Man-Made River, Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi said: “Now that we have achieved this, the United States will increase its threats against us. America will do everything to ensure that our great work is destroyed so that the Libyan people will always remain oppressed.” This solemn meeting was attended by many heads of state located on the continent of Africa who supported this initiative of Gaddafi. Among them was Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
At the beginning of the year, Mubarak resigned as President due to the sudden revolution that broke out in Egypt.
Aren't there a lot of coincidences? Moreover, what is interesting: when NATO troops intervened in the Libyan conflict, the first thing they began to bomb in order to “achieve peace” was the Great Man-Made River, its plant producing concrete pipes, its pumping stations and system control panels. So there is a very big doubt that the battle for oil is smoothly turning into a battle for... water. And Gaddafi is the first victim in this battle. And let's hope it's the last one.
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Among the newest conspiracy theories about the actions of the US government, one of the loudest and most recent is the assassination of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi not because of oil, but because of a grandiose irrigation project. The project was supposed to turn parched Africa into a prosperous continent, which is very unprofitable for those who make billions from the hunger and thirst of Africans.
For some reason, the construction of the Great Man-Made River in Libya has been deprived of media attention, despite the fact that this structure has been recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest irrigation project in the world since 2008. But what is important here is not the scale of the construction of the century, but the goals. After all, if the Libyan man-made river is completed, it will transform Africa from a desert into a fertile continent, the same as, for example, Eurasia or America. However, the whole problem is precisely in this very “if”...
In 1953, Libyans, trying to find sources of oil in the south of their country, discovered water: giant underground reservoirs feeding oases. Only a couple of decades later, the residents of Libya realized that they had fallen into their hands with a much greater treasure than black gold. From time immemorial, Africa has been a continent suffering from drought with sparse vegetation, but here literally under our feet there is about 35 thousand cubic kilometers of artesian water. With the appropriate volume, it is possible, for example, to completely flood the territory of Germany (357,021 square kilometers), and the depth of such a reservoir will be about 100 meters. If this water is released to the surface, it will turn Africa into a blooming garden!
This is precisely the idea that came to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Of course, because the territory of Libya is more than 95% desert. Under Gaddafi's patronage, a complex network of pipelines was developed that would deliver water from the Nubian Aquifer to the arid regions of the country. To implement this grandiose plan, specialists in modern technologies arrived in Libya from South Korea. A plant for the production of reinforced concrete pipes with a diameter of four meters was launched in the city of Al-Buraika. On August 28, 1984, Muammar Gaddafi was personally present at the start of construction of the pipeline.
The eighth wonder of the world
The Great Man-Made River is not without reason called the largest irrigation project in the world. Some even consider it the largest engineering structure on the planet. Gaddafi himself called his creation the eighth wonder of the world. Now this network includes 1,300 wells 500 meters deep, four thousand kilometers of concrete pipes laid underground, a system of pumping stations, storage tanks, control and management centers. Every day, six and a half million cubic meters of water flow through the pipes and aqueducts of the man-made river, supplying the cities of Tripoli, Benghazi, Sirte, Gharyan and others, as well as the green fields in the middle of the former desert. In the future, the Libyans intended to irrigate 130-150 thousand hectares of cultivated land and, in addition to Libya, include other African countries in this system. Ultimately, Africa would not only cease to be a perpetually starving continent, but would even begin to export barley, oats, wheat and corn itself. The project was planned to be completed in 25 years, but...
Expulsion from Paradise
In early 2011, civil war engulfed Libya, and on October 20, Muammar Gaddafi died at the hands of rebels. But there is an opinion that the real reason for the murder of the Libyan leader was his Great Man-Made River. Firstly, a number of major powers were engaged in supplying food to African countries. Of course, it is completely unprofitable for them to transform Africa from a consumer into a producer. Secondly, due to the growth of the world's population, fresh water is becoming an increasingly valuable resource every year. Many European countries are already experiencing a shortage of drinking water. And here Libya has a source in its hands, which, according to experts, will be enough for the next four to five millennia.
Once, at the ceremonial completion of one of the stages of construction of the Great Man-Made River, Muammar Gaddafi said: “Now, after this achievement, US threats against Libya will double. The Americans will do everything to destroy our work and leave the people of Libya oppressed.” By the way, the heads of many African states were present at this celebration, and the leaders of the Black Continent supported Gaddafi’s initiative. Among them was Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Earlier this year, Mubarak was removed from his post as a result of the revolution that suddenly broke out in Egypt. Strange coincidence, isn't it? It is noteworthy that when NATO forces intervened in the Libyan conflict, in order to “protect civilians,” their aircraft attacked the branches of the Great River, pumping stations and destroyed a plant producing concrete pipes.
So, I think it is highly likely that the fight for oil is being replaced by another war - for water. And Gaddafi became the first victim of this war.
Evgenia KURLAPOVA
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