The 8th Wonder of The World | The Great Man Made River In The Unlikeliest Locations

when you think of the world's largest projects large countries with high populations like China India and the USA usually comes to mind so it would come as a surprise to say that Libya was home to the world's largest irrigation project [Music] Libya located in North Africa surrounded by the vast Sahara desert with a population living predominantly alongside the Mediterranean Coast Libya has three historical regions the northwest region tripolitania the East sironica and fazan in the southwest the major cities being Tripoli the de facto capital misrata and Benghazi the country of Libya has been under rule for many empires from the Romans to the Ottomans and then to a colony under Mussolini's Italy under Italian rule Libya was called Italian North Africa with the provinces being converted into colonies ruled by Italian Governors throughout the occupation of Italy there was Libyan resistance that was put down by a so-called pacification of Libya in 1934 the Italians merged the colonies into one calling the new unified Colony Libya taking the name from the ancient Greeks under Italian rule infrastructure structure was expanded to encourage the growth of business and industry during World War II Libya was the scene for the North Africa campaign pitching the Allies against Italy and Germany with an Allied victory in 1943 after the second world war Libya gained independence becoming the kingdom of Libya ruled under a monarchy by King Idris the first and last monarch of Libya until 1959 Libya relied on foreign aid with the country being one of the poorest countries in the world after the discovery of oil in 1959 The Fortunes of Libya changed overnight the country became a wealthy State the concentration of wealth in the hands of the king fueled resentment from factions within the country building up to a 1969 Coupe de TA by a military officer Muammar Gaddafi Colonel Gaddafi's 42-year rule of Libya was modeled on egalitarianism and a direct economy but was really an authoritarian State concentrating power around Gaddafi's family and Inner Circle ruling with an Iron Fist and a vocal opposition to the Western countries led to Gaddafi gaining a lot of enemies culminating in the February 17th Revolution by libyans across Libya backed by NATO air support with an eight-month campaign leading to the capture and killing of the colonel in his hometown of cert over the next 10 years Libya has been in a semi-constant state of war with no stable governments leading to neglect of government-owned entities such as the man-made river which is in an incomplete State as well as the shutting of the water supply to mount pressure during times of War by opposing sides the state the country is in has led to some referring to Libya as a failed state in the 1980s Libya was facing a crisis with scarcely any downpour only 10 millimeters to 500 millimeters being able to provide water was quickly becoming a concerning issue on the hunt for oil a vast water supply was found under the Sahara Desert analysis indicated that the basins were a Nubian Sandstone aquifer system a vast reservoir of fossil water that is anywhere from ten thousand to one million years old water having penetrated the Sandstone before the end of the last ice age this Mega water supply was to be used for large-scale agricultural projects reducing the Reliance on Foreign imports of food into the country and developing a new agricultural industry however due to the looming Water Crisis multiple Solutions were imposed these included desalination plants water transports by Giant holliers and passing on the Water by pipeline from southern Europe it was concluded that there is no answer for the Water emergency in Libya other than vast quantities of water found under the Libyan Desert this would be coined the great man-made River the world's Lar largest irrigation project and Gaddafi's proclaimed Eighth Wonder of the world the great man-made River would contain the largest underground network of pipe 2830 kilometers and aqueducts in the world this consists of more than 1 300 Wells deeper than 500 meters and supplies 6.5 million cubic meters of fresh water to Libyan cities the first discovery as well as the most significant water supply was the kufra Basin which has expected groundwater stockpiling limit of 20 000 cubic kilometers trailed by the cert Basin with 10 000 cubic kilometers of water the mersuk Basin with a capacity limit of 4800 cubic kilometers and the hamadan Basin with a limit of 4 000 cubic kilometers the overall cost of the project was over 25 billion dollars with Libyan officials citing the enormous size of the underground reservoirs would Supply libyans water for thousands of years however some critics say that Libyan officials overestimated these claims some insist that the great man-made River an unrenewable fossil source of water with no recharge might not last through the 21st century on the 28th of August 1984 the project started with five phases being planned phase one involved the digging of hundreds of Wells at two fields tazerbu and surir where water was pumped up from a depth of some 500 meters 1650 feet from sarir water from both Fields was pumped Underground through a double pipeline to a holding Reservoir in ashdabiya that distributed water to the cities of Benghazi and cert by 1991 phase one was completed with the capabilities of transporting 2 million cubic meters of water per day through 1 000 miles of double pipeline during phase one two hundred and fifty thousand sections of pipe were laid which at the time time was said to be the largest of its kind in the world each pipe had a diameter of 4 meters and a length of 7 meters locally manufactured the pipe was made up of layers of Steel reinforced pre-stressed concrete the sections were laid in trenches seven meters deep by specially built cranes and pushed into place by bulldozers then the joints were sealed with giant rubber O-rings and cement grout and the sections of trench were filled in the second phase in 1996 involved the supply of drinking water to the western coast the source of water here was three Wells from the habal ahasawina region from kaser al-showe riff one pipeline pumps water to taruna in the nafusa plateau region once it flows by gravity to the algae Farah plane another pipeline goes north and eastwards to the coast where it then turns West and Supply cities such as miserata and alkums before ending at the capital Tripoli Phase 2 design capacity was 2 point 0.5 million cubic meters of water a day with only a fraction used for drinking water phase 3 completed in 2009 was split into two parts the first part added 700 kilometers of new Pipeline and pumping stations to increase the total daily Supply capacity of the existing system to 3.68 million cubic meters the second part provided 138 000 cubic meters a day to the city of tobrook an additional 500 kilometer Pipeline and a new Reservoir south of the towbrook phase 4 and 5 haven't been completed yet due to the 2011 Libyan Civil War but once met includes an extension of the system Southward to well fields in the al-khafra region a pipeline from Wells near gdames in the western desert to the coastal cities of al-zawia and zuwara west of Tripoli as well as further connections between phase one and two on completion phases 4 and 5 will add another 4500 kilometers of pipelines supplying a total of 6.5 million cubic meters of water per day since the 2011 Civil War the great man-made River has suffered from damage and neglect with war factions leveraging the water supply leading to around 2 million libyans facing a shortage of water currently the state of Libya's internal politics and governance are in question it is yet to be seen whether large infrastructure projects such as the man-made River are viable to be continued if hostilities come to an end due to the nature of extensive repairs to be carried out before expansion what can definitely be said however is that the once beautiful and flourishing country may have more pressing basic infrastructure projects and repairs to carry out once the Civil War is over and we may not see the passion project of Gaddafi ever come to fruition thanks for watching be sure to like And subscribe [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you foreign [Music]

Channel: Engineeringness

Views: 261,319

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Id: prtFstXFNYI

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 27 2022

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