Libyans Man-Made River

Summary

Libya is a desert county, but Libyans challenged it by the Great Man-Made River project, which was the priority of the government, because this project will supply fresh water to all the country.

In 1984, Muammer Al Qadhafi started the project in Brega. He provided the money and got help from foreign companies. In 1993 phase 1 began at Sarir and three years later phase 2 finished in Jabel Hassouna while phase 3, which links phase 1 and phase 2, is still under construction.

A pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe factory made the pipes which were used and they are 4m-diameter. The factory was built specially for the project.

Libya started to use the water for irrigating the agriculture. Around 130,000 hectares will be distributed to farmers. Libya is also thinking of exporting.

Libyans estimate that the project will cost around $20bn and it can transport 6.5 million cubic meters of water a day from over 1000 desert wells.

Of course no one is sure how long the water will last and whether it will deliver the quantity and quality of produce.


Main idea

Although Libyans live in a desert country, they challenged the water shortage which is the main problem which is threatening their lives. They made a Man-Made River which is one of the biggest projects in the world. This river supplied the fresh water to all the country.


Opinion

I think Libyans are intelligent because they created a big idea which is 100% useful to everybody even when they do not have any experience with such a project. They used what they have (money) and asked for experience from others and started learning from them and gaining the experience from them. Then Libyans started depending on themselves.