Great Man-Made River (GMR)

Libya's Great Man-Made River:

The Great Man-Made River in Libya is one of the most ambitious Civil Engineering Project in history of mankind. 

In the year 1953, the Libya Government found out not only vast oil reserves but also vast quantity of fresh water locked under the strata, most of the water was trapped around 7000-30000 years ago which is divided in 4 different basins. The first basin is named Kufra basin which is neat Egypt Border which covers almost 35000 sq kilometer which is quite deep around 2000 m deep. The other basin is in Sirte Basin which cover 10000 sq kilometer, third in Murzuk Basin and the last in Jabal Fezzan Basin covering 4800 sq kilometers area. 

The GMR project will be used to transfer water to North of the country to provide water for irrigation purpose for more than 6 million  people. This will be a changing point  for Libya and the Colonel Muammar Gaddafi called it the Eighth Wonder of World. The work started in 1984 of the project and estimated to be completed in 25 years working in 5 phases but due to geopolitics and some interruptions caused delay in work of the connectivity. 

Phases:

In Phase 1 which started in 2001, The Great Man-Made River Authority awarded $82 million for major new pumping facilities to a consortium led by Frankenthal KSB Fluid System.

In Phase 2 from Fezzan region will supply water to fertile Jeffara Plain. 

In Phase 3 an additional 1200 km of pipeline was laid down and completed in the year 2009.

The last two Phases involved  expansion of network together with the construction of pipe line and connecting all to a single network.

Some Interruption:

In 2011 during the Libyan Civil War, the plant which was making the pipes for the project named, Brega Plant, was hit by the NATO air strike.

As of 2019 water infrastructure has suffered occasional breakdown because of which 101 of 479 well on western pipeline were dismantled.