The Great Man-Made River (GMMR, , ) is a network of pipes that supplies

fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salt (chemistry), salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include ...

obtained from the

Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS) 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. N ...

fossil aquifer across

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

. It is the world's largest

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

project. The project utilizes a pipeline system that pumps water from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System from southern Libya to cities in the populous Libyan northern Mediterranean coast including Tripoli and Benghazi. The water covers a distance of up to 1,600 kilometers and provides 70% of all fresh water used in Libya. According to the project's website, it is the largest

underground network ''Underground Network'' is Anti-Flag's third studio album, released on Fat Wreck Chords in 2001. Widely considered to be the band's breakthrough album, it helped make Anti-Flag a household name in the U.S. punk scene with tracks such as "Underg ...

pipe Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circular ...

s () and

aqueducts Aqueduct may refer to: Structures *Aqueduct (bridge), a bridge to convey water over an obstacle, such as a ravine or valley *Navigable aqueduct, or water bridge, a structure to carry navigable waterway canals over other rivers, valleys, railw ...

in the world. It consists of more than 1,300

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

s, most more than 500 m

deep Deep or The Deep may refer to: Places United States * Deep Creek (Appomattox River tributary), Virginia * Deep Creek (Great Salt Lake), Idaho and Utah * Deep Creek (Mahantango Creek tributary), Pennsylvania * Deep Creek (Mojave River tributary ...

, and supplies 6,500,000 m³ of

per day to the cities of

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis (from , meaning "three cities") may refer to: Places Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in the Pelasgiotis district, Thessaly, near Larissa ...

Benghazi Benghazi () () is the List of cities in Libya, second-most-populous city in Libya as well as the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023. Located on the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, Ben ...

Sirte Sirte (; , ), also spelled Sirt, Surt, Sert or Syrte, is a city in Libya. It is located south of the Gulf of Sirte, almost right in the middle between Tripoli and Benghazi. It is famously known for its battles, ethnic groups and loyal ...

and elsewhere in Libya. The late Libyan Leader

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until Killing of Muammar Gaddafi, his assassination by Libyan Anti-Gaddafi ...

described it as the "

Eighth Wonder of the World Eighth Wonder of the World is an unofficial title sometimes given to new buildings, structures, projects, designs or even people that are deemed to be comparable to the seven Wonders of the World. Candidates for the Eighth Wonder of the World ...

History

In 1953, efforts to find

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

in southern Libya led to the discovery of large quantities of potable

fossil water Fossil water, fossil groundwater, or paleowater is an ancient body of water that has been contained in some undisturbed space, typically groundwater in an aquifer, for millennia. Other types of fossil water can include subglacial lakes, such as An ...

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 was funded by the Gaddafi government. The primary contractor for the first phases was Dong Ah Consortium (a South Korean company) and the present main contractor is Al Nahr Company Ltd. Imported goods which were destined for use in the construction of the GMR were made in Korea and Europe (mainly in Italy) and arrived by sea via the entry port of

Brega Brega , also known as ''Mersa Brega'' or ''Marsa al-Brega'' ( , i.e. "Brega Seaport"), is a complex of several smaller towns, industry installations and education establishments situated in Libya on the Gulf of Sidra, the most southerly point of ...

(

Gulf of Sidra The Gulf of Sidra (), also known as the Gulf of Sirte (), is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea on the northern coast of Libya, named after the oil port of Sidra or the city of Sirte. It was also historically known as the Great Sirte or G ...

). Cathodic corrosion protection on the pipeline was supplied by an Australian company, AMAC Corrosion Protection, based in Melbourne and delivered via the port of Benghazi. The rest of the material was made in Libya. The total cost of the GMRP was projected at more than

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

25 billion. Libya has completed the work to date without the financial support of major countries or loans from world banks. Since 1990,

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

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

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...

from which this water is being supplied is the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System. It accumulated during the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

and is not currently being replenished. If 2007 rates of retrieval are not increased, the water could last a thousand years. Other estimates indicate that the aquifer could be depleted of water in as soon as 60 to 100 years. Analysts say that the costs of the $25 billion groundwater extraction system are 10% those of desalination. In this project 1 billion euros were invested for the installation of 50,000 artificial palm trees for water condensation. This project was carried out by the Spanish engineer Antonio Ibáñez de Alba. On 22 July 2011, during the

First Libyan Civil War The Libyan civil war, also known as the First Libyan Civil War and Libyan Revolution, was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were ...

and the foreign military intervention, one of the two plants making pipes for the project, the Brega Plant, was hit by a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

air strike. At a press conference on 26 July, NATO claimed that rockets had been fired from within the plant area, and that military materiel, including

multiple rocket launcher A multiple rocket launcher (MRL) or multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) is a type of rocket artillery system that contains multiple rocket launcher, launchers which are fixed to a single weapons platform, platform, and shoots its rocket (weapon ...

s, was stored there according to intelligence findings, presenting two photos of an

BM-21 The BM-21 "Grad" () is a self-propelled 122 mm multiple rocket launcher designed in the Soviet Union. The system and the M-21OF rocket were first developed in the early 1960s, and saw their first combat use in March 1969 during the Sino-So ...

MRL as sole evidence for the destruction of the factory. The evidence for a potential UN resolutions breach has been insufficient. During the

Second Libyan Civil War The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

from 2014 to 2020, the water infrastructure suffered neglect and occasional breakdowns. As of July 2019, 101 of 479 wells on the western pipeline system had been dismantled. On 10 April 2020, a station controlling water flow to Tripoli and neighboring towns was seized by an unknown armed group. The flow of water was cut to over two million people as a result, and as such the attack was condemned by the United Nations on humanitarian grounds.

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 laid 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, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

by the Redaelli Tecna S.p.A. company with its head office in Cologno Monzese-

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and its factory in Caivano-

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

). The

Sarir Sarir or Serir was a medieval Christians, Christian state lasting from the 6th or 7th century to the 12th century in the mountainous regions of modern-day Dagestan in southern Russia. Its name is derived from the Arabic word for "throne" and re ...

plant was also inaugurated on this date. * 26 August 1989: Muammar Gaddafi laid the foundation stone for phase two of the Great Man-Made River Project.

First water arrival

* 11 September 1989: to

Ajdabiya Ajdabiya ( ; ) is a town in and capital of the Al Wahat District in northeastern Libya. It is some south of Benghazi. From 2001 to 2007 it was part of and capital of the Ajdabiya District. The town is divided into three Basic People's Congres ...

reservoir. * 28 September 1989: to Grand Omar Muktar reservoir. * 4 September 1991: to Ghardabiya reservoir. * 28 August 1996: to Tripoli. * 28 September 2007: to

Gharyan Gharyan is a city in northwestern Libya, in Jabal al Gharbi District, located 80 km south of Tripoli. Gharyan is one of the largest towns in the district. Prior to 2007, it was the administrative seat of Gharyan District. In 2005, the po ...

Gallery

File:Great Manmade River. Libya.jpg, GMMR - 20 dinar note (2002) File:Great Manmade River.png, GMMRA logo File:The Great Man - River Builder.jpg, Stamp commemorating Gaddafi as "River Builder"

References

Additional sources

BBC News: Libya's thirst for 'fossil water'
(article contains map of pipe network)
Project article at ''Encyclopædia Britannica''

TEKFEN İNŞAAT official article

External links

Joint project of

IAEA The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 ...

UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development. The UNDP emphasizes on developing local capacity towar ...

and GEF about the Great Manmade River logistics.
Great Man-Made River International Water Prize

Great Man-Made River website at AlGaddaf.org
{{Coord, 25, 27, 20, N, 21, 36, 03, E, region:LY_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title Geography of Libya Economy of Libya Water supply and sanitation in Libya Muammar Gaddafi Interbasin transfer