A vast man-made river, believed to be the world’s largest irrigation project, is set to get even larger thanks to a new £5.1billion phase. The Great Man-Made River (GMMR) is a colossal civil engineering project in the African desert, devised to channel ancient water to an arid North African nation that suffers from water scarcity due to its climate.
Spanning the length of Libya, the Great Man-Made River Project seeks to harness so-called « fossil water » that reportedly dates back to the last ice age from an immense underground reservoir known as the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS). Situated beneath the Sahara Desert and sections of Libya, Egypt, Chad and Sudan, the NSAS is one of the oldest and largest aquifers on the planet, and contains vast reserves of freshwater. Libya discovered the aquifers during its pursuit of oil in 1953, with plans for the GMMR subsequently hatched up a decade later in the late 1960s, according to the Spanish newspaper Diario AS.
Financed by the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who described the mammoth infrastructure project as the « eighth wonder of the world », the GMMR reportedly had an estimated budget of $25billion (£18.5billion).
Its monstrous budget certainly reflects the massive amounts of material that are required to complete the project. Indeed, the GMMR boasts raw materials that could apparently be used to construct « 20 Great Pyramids of Giza ».
The Great Man-Made River Authority (GMMRA) estimates the use of about five million tons of cement, with steel wires « long enough to circle the earth 280 times ».
Split into five key phases, the first of which was completed on August 28, 1991, the GMMRA’s functional pipelines span 1,750 miles, with 2,485 miles currently in different stages, and a daily water capacity of approximately 1.7 billion gallons.
As of December 2025, 34 years later, the fifth phase is « close to completion ». Diario AS’ Laura Martin Sanjuan writes: « At present, the fifth phase is close to completion and is estimated to cost $7 billion. This phase will expand coverage to rural and northern areas that are still unconnected. »
She continued: « However, recent obstacles include the 2011 civil war, which led to reductions in public funding, power supply failures, infrastructure damage, and difficulties importing spare parts. »
Designed to channel water to Libya’s heavily populated coastal areas, the GMMR represented an « attractive alternative » to the nation’s « overexploited coastal aquifers » and the « expensive process of desalination », reports Newsweek’s Hugh Cameron.
The Great Man-Made River Authority (GMMRA) described the project as « of a crucial and strategic nature », as it could prove « the sole solution to the drinking, irrigation, and industrial water shortage problem at the Libyan state ».
Laura also reports a « gap between production costs and consumer pricing », signalling issues with economic sustainability. It is also a non-renewable source, with alarming estimates suggesting that it could be exhausted this century.
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