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I grew up in Libya during the building of the GMMR. I still remember the size of the pipes and the amount of trucks hauling them. One truck one pipe. https://

by Viker 6y ago

I grew up in Libya during the building of the GMMR. I still remember the size of the pipes and the amount of trucks hauling them. One truck one pipe. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nubian_Sandstone_Aquifer_System#/media/File%3AManMadeRiverLibya-7A.jpg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nubian_Sandstone_Aquifer_Sys... The Korean companies (Daewoo mainly I think) building the project were massive. They would build a double lane road. One side would be used exclusively for one direction pipe supplies and machines. Eventually when the section completed they would just open the road as a public highway. This really helped Libya build up reach and infrastructure. The truck lines were endless... We are talking km long here... Eventually when the water reached the coast, I remember I was in Benghazi then. It was good and drinkable from the spring ( this is usually not possible since the water is still salty from the sea) after about a week the sweet water stopped because they started mixing it with the old supply to conserve the desert supplies, the water amount in the desert was over estimated... All in all Libya was a great country. My family moved to Europe and I remember how much miss information there was about Libya. Then 2012 happened... Ama about the GMMR. I ll try to answer as best as I can and remember.

lqet 6y ago
> this is usually not possible since the water is still salty from the sea Excuse my naive question, but where did the population get drinking water from prior to the GMMR?
- Viker 6y ago
  Depends where in the country you are.. Parts of the coast in Libya is really harsh and desert. Mountain parts from Benghazi and eastward and Tripoli and westward. There are some small springs around also, water wells can be dug in various places. But when the urbanization really started I think most water for the big cities came from salt water processing plants.
einpoklum 6y ago
1. How come so much water collects in the desert, rather than closer to the coastline? 2. Is there some decent English text, in a book or online, which describes how Libyan society worked up until 2012? With focus on social and political structures and their interaction?
- adolph 6y ago
  For question one, Wikipedia refers to the source as a “fossil” aquifer, meaning the water has been in place for many thousands of years. It also claims the source is rainwater and doesn’t make an estimate about balance of inputs to pumping effort outputs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nubian_Sandstone_Aquifer_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nubian_Sandstone_Aquifer_Syste...
  - einpoklum 6y ago
    If that's really the case, pumping it out sounds like a fool's errand, because it'll just run out. Either that or it's so vast that consumption by millions of people doesn't make a dent in the overall water level.
    - azernik 6y ago
      Even with zero influx, at current estimated usage it should last about 100K years
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
    - thendrill 6y ago
      Yeh but you have to remember that Libya was and is still floating on oil. Also this was the 70s ... Good time for oil. So basically Libya has this free black money comming from the desert. Yet people struggle with basic infrastructure. Also keep in mind that Libya was around 6 mill people. Not a lot for such a vast desert. So basically two birds with one stone... You build up your infrastructure connecting the coast and the desert and in the process you get much needed water delivered to the coast. Yes the water might not be there. But you still have a super highway build in the desert. If you look at UAE and KSA that is exactly what they did too. Invest as much as possible in infrastructure, NOW... roads, pipes, cables etc. "Long term" does not play well in Arabic culture....
    - Tuna-Fish 6y ago
lsmurray 6y ago
Is there any worry about what would happen if the water supply runs out? The article noted that the GMMR might run out in 60-100 years and supplies millions of people with water.
- Viker 6y ago
  I think the water supply ran out..
  - Tuna-Fish 6y ago
    There is still plenty of water there. What they failed at was that they greatly overestimated how permeable the sandstone that holds the water is. That is, the flow of water sideways in the aquifer is much slower than expected. They pumped the area directly under the pumps almost dry and then were surprised about how slowly it refilled. It would still be possible to fix this and reach the original targets by building more pumping stations, further away from each other than the existing ones. That or frack the rock formation...
octocop 6y ago
What do you think of Gaddafi? I read on wiki he said that GMMR was the eighth wonder of the world.
weeblewobble 6y ago
I find it very cool that you were there for something like this. How was it funded? Seems very expensive. Were regular people excited about it? Was there a meaningful change in day to day life after it was completed?
- hutzlibu 6y ago
  "How was it funded? Seems very expensive." Oil money.

by Viker 6y ago

lqet 6y ago

> this is usually not possible since the water is still salty from the sea Excuse my naive question, but where did the population get drinking water from prior to the GMMR?

Viker 6y ago
Depends where in the country you are.. Parts of the coast in Libya is really harsh and desert. Mountain parts from Benghazi and eastward and Tripoli and westward. There are some small springs around also, water wells can be dug in various places. But when the urbanization really started I think most water for the big cities came from salt water processing plants.

einpoklum 6y ago

1. How come so much water collects in the desert, rather than closer to the coastline? 2. Is there some decent English text, in a book or online, which describes how Libyan society worked up until 2012? With focus on social and political structures and their interaction?

adolph 6y ago
For question one, Wikipedia refers to the source as a “fossil” aquifer, meaning the water has been in place for many thousands of years. It also claims the source is rainwater and doesn’t make an estimate about balance of inputs to pumping effort outputs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nubian_Sandstone_Aquifer_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nubian_Sandstone_Aquifer_Syste...
- einpoklum 6y ago
  If that's really the case, pumping it out sounds like a fool's errand, because it'll just run out. Either that or it's so vast that consumption by millions of people doesn't make a dent in the overall water level.
  - azernik 6y ago
    Even with zero influx, at current estimated usage it should last about 100K years
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - thendrill 6y ago
    Yeh but you have to remember that Libya was and is still floating on oil. Also this was the 70s ... Good time for oil. So basically Libya has this free black money comming from the desert. Yet people struggle with basic infrastructure. Also keep in mind that Libya was around 6 mill people. Not a lot for such a vast desert. So basically two birds with one stone... You build up your infrastructure connecting the coast and the desert and in the process you get much needed water delivered to the coast. Yes the water might not be there. But you still have a super highway build in the desert. If you look at UAE and KSA that is exactly what they did too. Invest as much as possible in infrastructure, NOW... roads, pipes, cables etc. "Long term" does not play well in Arabic culture....
  - Tuna-Fish 6y ago

lsmurray 6y ago

Is there any worry about what would happen if the water supply runs out? The article noted that the GMMR might run out in 60-100 years and supplies millions of people with water.

Viker 6y ago
I think the water supply ran out..
- Tuna-Fish 6y ago
  There is still plenty of water there. What they failed at was that they greatly overestimated how permeable the sandstone that holds the water is. That is, the flow of water sideways in the aquifer is much slower than expected. They pumped the area directly under the pumps almost dry and then were surprised about how slowly it refilled. It would still be possible to fix this and reach the original targets by building more pumping stations, further away from each other than the existing ones. That or frack the rock formation...

octocop 6y ago

What do you think of Gaddafi? I read on wiki he said that GMMR was the eighth wonder of the world.

weeblewobble 6y ago

I find it very cool that you were there for something like this. How was it funded? Seems very expensive. Were regular people excited about it? Was there a meaningful change in day to day life after it was completed?

hutzlibu 6y ago
"How was it funded? Seems very expensive." Oil money.