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This
article accompanies a 7 page exclusive report Water Wars: The Coming
Global Crisis, published in
New
Dawn
No. 67 (July-August 2001). To purchase your copy
click here. To subscribe to New
Dawn
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The
Great Man Made River in Libya represents the fulfilment of a dream
long cherished by writers and scientists, a dream of an abundance
of water. The River is designed to bring the pure fossil waters of
desert aquifers to the people of Libya, ensuring that the country
is self sufficient, particularly for its agricultural needs.
As well
as the world’s single largest construction project, the River
has been recorded in the Guinness Book of Records (1993) with respect
to cost, period of construction, number of personnel involved, equipment
and technology used.
The Great
Jamahiriya (Libya) covers an area of about 1,800,000 square kilometres
spanning three climatic zones: the Mediterranean, the semi-desert,
and the vast desert zone of the northern Sahara with its sprinkling
of oases. The present population of about 5 million is growing and
lives mainly in the Mediterranean coastal zone, with a large proportion
in its cities of Tripoli and Benghazi.
The fertile
lands of the Jeffara Plain in the north west of the country, Jabal
al Akhdar in the north east, and the coastal plain east of Sirt, all
support a flourishing agriculture which is dependent upon rainfall.
To the south, separated by a strip of semi-desert, the desert is encroaching
ever nearer the Gulf of Sirt. In the semi-desert, which serves primarily
as pasture, rainfall is slight and irregular, and the natural balance
of plant life is fragile. As more and more livestock feeds within
this diminishing area, the plants disappear or wither under the twin
stresses of overgrazing and lack of water. Every year the desert claims
a few more metres as the sands creep in. It is over this terrain that
the waters of the Great Man Made River are conveyed.
For centuries
the vast deserts of southern Libya formed a barrier crossed only by
caravan trade routes following established tracks from oasis to oasis.
From 1953, these vast and largely unknown areas were progressively
investigated in the search for new oilfields. This led, not only to
the discovery of large oil reserves, but also great quantities of
fresh water stored in underground aquifers in the Sahara desert. In
1974, the first steps towards exploitation of this water valuable
resource was taken, with studies to develop the Great Man Made River
project. In 1983, the Great Man Made River authority was established
to begin the greatest feat of civil engineering ever undertaken by
mankind – to bring this mighty ocean of fossil water to the people
of Libya.
In order
to tap the ancient aquifers, a series of wells were sunk and a huge
concrete pipeline was constructed to convey water from the desert
to the coastal plain. So far, over 1000 wells have been drilled to
depths of up to 650 metres and over 5000 km of pipeline has been buried
in the desert.
The project
has proceeded in planned phases. The first and largest phase was completed
in November 1994 and the system is able to supply two million tonnes
of water per day to Benghazi, the second-largest city in Libya. Here,
water from individual wells flows through a network of small diameter
pre-stressed concrete cylinder and ductile iron pipes, that link them
to main conveying pipes, four metres in diameter. This complex pipe
system gravity feeds the water thousands of kilometres to the coast.
More
than half a million pipes have been used to construct the pipeline
so far. Special pipe manufacturing plants were built at Sarir and
Brega. The plants, which use mostly local materials, produce the pre-stressed
concrete pipes at a rate of 220 per day. The pipes are conveyed, via
special carrier trucks, over a series of purpose built haulage roads.
Once the pipes reach their destination, cranes and bulldozers maneuver
them into in deep trenches. The pipes are then connected, tested and
back filled.
The second
phase of the project completed the water supply section for the main
city of Tripoli, and was completed in August 1996. The third and fourth
phase will cost around $10 billion and are expected to take around
10 years to complete. The first part of Phase III, which involves
the laying of 190km of pipelines in Libya, commenced in September
1999 and will be completed in August 2002. Upon completion of all
phases, the Great Man Made River pipeline will provide life-giving
water to the entire Great Jamahiriya.
The Great
Man Made River project has involved the development of several massive
power stations, which generate electricity to pump the aquifers. The
state of the art Sarir power station, for example, consists of six
15 MW gas turbine generator sets. It was specifically built to provide
the power required to operate the Sarir and Tazerbo wellfields. In
another development, two major 220/66kV substations were built to
support the East Jabal Hasouna well fields.
The Libyan
economy and its rising population has placed increased demands on
water resources for agricultural, industrial and domestic use. Traditional
water resources like the coastal aquifers are becoming saline due
to over use, risking collapse of agricultural lands. The Great Man
Made River Project will reduce extraction of water from the coastal
aquifers, as agriculture ceases to be dependent on existing water
wells. The new source of water that flows from the desert aquifers
will provide much needed extra water, particularly in the Brega and
Ras Lanuf industrial regions.
More
than 86% of the water output from the Great Man Made River will be
for agricultural development, enabling Libya to become self-sufficient
and economically independent. Production of strategic crops such as
wheat, barley, sorghum and sheep fodder will be given priority.
The Great
Man Made River will enable over 135,000 hectares of fertile land to
be made productive with 270,000 tons of crops, 760,000 tons of fodder
and an abundance of fruit and vegetables given sustenance by the ancient
fossil water. National production of beef and mutton, and of milk
and dairy products are to be increased so that expensive imports can
be reduced.
Other
spin-offs of the Great Man Made River include the development of light
industries in rural areas and revival of water short cities and villages.
The River will also allow people in rural areas to stay on their land,
which will become rich in agricultural potential, thus relieving the
population pressure in large cities such as Tripoli and Benghazi.
Foreshadowing a time when oil revenues will diminish, the Great Man
Made River also creates new fields of employment which will considerably
curtail unemployment.
The aquifers
are expected to pump their fossil waters for at least 50 years. During
this time, the coastal aquifers will replenish. In the mean time,
the Great Jamahiriya will realise a huge measure of food and water
self-sufficiency in an era where trade in these commodities is increasingly
out of the hands of nation-states.
The cost
of conveying the underground water from the desert is more economical
than other alternatives. At a total cost of around $30 billion dollars,
the unit price per cubic metre of water is between 70 and 160 Libyan
dirhams while the same volume produced by desalination of seawater
would cost between 320 and 620 dirhams. Only a strong economy could
afford a plan for its future on such a huge scale. The money spent
on the Great Man Made River, represents only a small part of Libya’s
oil revenue. All Libyans would agree that the life giving artery that
now flows beneath the desert is money well invested.
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Further
information on the Great Man Made River project and the Great
Jamahiriya,
visit http://www.gmrp.org/index_en.html
and http://www.qadhafi.org
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