More People, More Development

Libya’s great man-made river

Since 1970, revenues from domestic oil exploration and abstraction projects greatly helped the Libyan government to invest in water investigations, update hydro-geological data and evaluate groundwater resources. One result was the discovery of three huge freshwater reservoirs in the Sahara Desert – the Hamada, Murzuq and Kufra basins. Studies of these basins led to the implementation of several agricultural projects in remote desert areas such as a large irrigation programme in the Kufra Basin launched to improve wheat production.

Given that most of the country’s fertile lands and human populations are found along the Mediterranean coast, Libya decided to increase NSAS exploitation through its ‘Great Man-Made River Project’, today the world’s largest groundwater ‘conveyance’ scheme. Costing some USD 30 billion, the ambitious development project was conceived in 1984. It began with the drilling of over a thousand deep wells into the NSAS desert frontier. Today, it includes almost 5,000 km of 4-meter diameter concrete piping. The Project will eventually convey over six million cu m of water per day from the Sahara Desert to coastal population centres including the capital Tripoli and other Libyan Mediterranean cities.

In September 1993, Phase 1 resulted in 2,000 km of pipe laid to convey two million cu m of water per day from the Sarir and Tazerbo well fields to Benghazi and nearby cities, to increase to 3.5 million cu m in the future. Phase 2 involves conveying two million cu m a distance of 895 km from the desert to Tripoli and nearby cities. Other phases are also now in development, as using Nubian waters to meet the growing demands of growing coastal populations continues to be Libya’s goal.

“The water changed lives,” said Adam Kuwairi, a senior figure in the Great Man-Made River Authority, to BBC World. “For the first time in our history, there was water in the tap for washing, shaving and showering.”

The country also has plans to use more water for agriculture. Across Libya, 130,000 hectares of land will be irrigated for new farms. Large farms will concentrate on crops currently imported by Libya including wheat, oats, corn and barley.

According to the BBC, the combination of water and oil has given Libya a sound economic platform, placing it as the ‘Gateway to Africa’ and in a good position to play an increasingly influential role in the global economy.