A significant man-made river, believed to be the largest irrigation project globally, is set to undergo further expansion with a new development phase costing £5.1 billion. The Great Man-Made River (GMMR) is an impressive engineering achievement in the African desert, intended to transfer ancient water to a dry North African country facing water scarcity due to its harsh climate.
Spanning the entire territory of Libya, the Great Man-Made River Project aims to access “fossil water” from a vast underground reservoir known as the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS), which dates back to the previous ice age.
Situated beneath the Sahara Desert and parts of Libya, Egypt, Chad, and Sudan, the NSAS is one of the oldest and largest aquifers on Earth, holding vast freshwater reserves. Discovered during oil exploration in 1953, plans for the GMMR began in the late 1960s.
Funded by the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who hailed it as the “eighth wonder of the world,” the GMMR had an estimated budget of $25 billion (£18.5 billion). The massive budget reflects the substantial materials required for the project, with enough resources to build “20 Great Pyramids of Giza.”
Managed by the Great Man-Made River Authority (GMMRA), the project is divided into five major phases, with the first completed in 1991. The functional pipelines cover 1,750 miles, with 2,485 miles in progress and a daily water capacity of around 1.7 billion gallons.
By December 2025, the fifth phase is nearing completion after three decades. The latest phase aims to reach rural and northern areas that are currently not connected.
Challenges such as reduced funding after the 2011 civil war, power failures, infrastructure damage, and difficulties in importing spare parts have hindered progress. The GMMR was designed to supply water to Libya’s densely populated coastal regions, offering an alternative to overexploited coastal aquifers and expensive desalination processes.
The GMMRA views the project as crucial and strategic, potentially solving Libya’s water shortage issues for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes. However, concerns over economic sustainability and the non-renewable nature of the resource suggest that water supplies could deplete within this century.