How Libya Built Rivers in the Sahara Desert. Gaddafi's Unbelievable Africa Megaproject Libya has long struggled with water scarcity, dating back to the early days of the country. This is not surprising given that 90% of Libya's territory is desert and there are no natural rivers. Rainfall is also scarce, with some areas receiving little to no rain for decades. This has led to a concentration of population in the 10% of the country where rainfall and agriculture are possible, hindering development and prosperity. A plan to create man-made rivers, which would become the largest irrigation system in human history.
The oil industry became the backbone of the Libyan economy and continues to play a major role to this day. It is thanks to this discovery that Libya was able to emerge as a major player in the global oil market and become one of the wealthiest countries in Africa.
But Libya's population growth brought back a long-standing problem: water scarcity. Even in the coastal regions where it rains, the water supply was not enough to sustain the growing population. In order to find more water, the Libyans searched for alternative sources. They considered building desalination plants to turn the Mediterranean sea water into freshwater, but the cost was too high. They also looked into importing water from Europe through tankers or pipelines, but this would make the country dependent on Europe for water. Libya's solution to their water problem.
While drilling for more oil in the southern desert of Libya, they discovered a vast underground aquifer full of fresh water, a resource more valuable than oil itself. The region now receives very little rainfall, this water is not a renewable resource. The aquifers were also in remote locations, far from populated coastal cities, with limited infrastructure and transportation. Libyans initially planned to use the water for agricultural projects in the desert, but plans changed with the rise of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 1969.
Libyans devised an ambitious plan under Gaddafi's leadership to overcome their long-standing geographic disadvantage of a lack of rivers. They proposed constructing man-made rivers through pipelines across the Sahara desert, connecting newly discovered aquifers in the south to rapidly growing cities along the Mediterranean coast in the north. This massive irrigation project, known as the Great Man-Made River, would take decades to complete and would become the largest and most ambitious irrigation project in history, forever changing Libya's destiny.
The Great Man-Made River project involved constructing more than 4,000 kilometers of pipes to transport water from underground aquifers in the south to the cities in the north. The system includes over 1,300 water wells, most of which are over half a kilometer deep, to extract water from the ground. Today, this system provides approximately 2.4 cubic kilometers of fresh water annually to the over 7 million citizens of Libya, providing them with an equivalent amount of usable water.
The Great Man-Made River project was divided into five phases, the first of which focused on constructing a pipeline from south to north, tapping into the Nubian Sandstone aquifer and connecting to the cities of Benghazi and Serta. The pipeline was extended further west to Tripoli and the surrounding area in the second phase, which was completed in 2000 and provided over 1 million cubic meters of water per day. The third phase, finished in 2009, added another pipeline to the existing network, increasing water supply to Benghazi and Serta. The fourth and fifth phases, which were intended to connect the Western and Eastern systems and connect Tobruk to an aquifer, were never completed due to the political turmoil and civil war that followed the Arab Spring revolution and Gaddafi's regime's overthrow in 2011. The Great Man-Made River, once considered the World's Eighth Wonder, is still unfinished, and its completion is uncertain.
The Great Man-Made River project was initially a success, but over time it faced challenges. There were problems with the quality of the water, as it contained high levels of dissolved salts and minerals. The wells also depleted the aquifers at an alarming rate.
The Great Man-Made River project has been able to provide water to millions of Libyans, and it has been crucial in sustaining the population in the northern coastal cities. The project has enabled the growth of agriculture in the desert, which has contributed to the country's food security. However, the project has not been able to fully solve the water scarcity problem in Libya. The country still faces significant water shortages, and the population continues to grow, putting further strain on the limited resources. The water scarcity problem is a sustainable and long-term issue for Libya.
Please Subscribe! : [ Ссылка ]
Support our channel and get special perks by pressing the "JOIN" button, Thank you it means a lot :)
