The Great Man-made River project

ike its neighbours, Libya depends on

groundwater for the majority of its
water supplies. However, most comes in
the form of fossilised water from aquifers
deep in the desert, through the Great
Man-made River (GMR) project.
The GMR has provided an increasing
share of Libyas water in recent years,
accounting for 61 per cent of the total in
2009. The 4,000-kilometre network of
pipelines, linking massive underground
aquifers at Kufra, Murzuq and Sarir with
Libyas urban centres on the Mediterranean coast, has also received the lions
share of investment in the water sector.
In the 25 years up to 2010, the government
spent more than $20bn on the project,
which contributed over 1.6 million cubic
metres a day (cm/d) to the countrys water
supply. Prior to the conflict, plans called
for the GMR to supply about 6 million
cm/d by 2030, according to the General
MEED Insight

The major water

deposits under the
Sahara desert were
first discovered in
the 1950s
Water Authority (GWA), a largely autonomous arm of the Agriculture Ministry.
The major water deposits under the
Sahara desert were first discovered in the
1950s during oil exploration. The newfound aquifers were partially developed
in the 1970s, with production reaching
about 500,000 cm/d and supplying
mainly agriculture. In the late 1970s, the
government undertook studies to assess
the optimum use for the fossilised water.
It concluded that it would not be cost-

Libyan water supply by source

Water Supply
Desalination

61
GMR

28
11

Groundwater

GMR=Great Man-made River. Source: General Desalination Company of Libya

www.meedinsight.com

67

effective to grow crops in the south of the

country and proposed instead that a network of pipelines should be built to transport the water to the more fertile and
already developed coastal plains.
Plans for the GMR project were first formulated in the 1980s by the UKs Brown
& Root, now part of the US KBR, and
Price Brothers, a pre-stressed concrete
pipeline specialist. Initially, both firms
worked for the government and then for
the Great Man-made River Authority
(GMRA), which was set up in 1983.
The plans drawn up by the consultants
and the government called for a massive
water pipeline network to be built in
phases. In total, it envisaged the drilling
of some 1,350 production wells spread
across the four basins, which would be
connected to the coast by 600,000 sections of pre-stressed concrete cylinder
pipes (PCCP). In total, more than 4,000km
of pipeline were to be laid, delivering
over 6 million cm/d of water.

The Great Man-made River project

TUNISIA

Tripoli

Benghazi
Tobruk

Sirte
Ajdabiya

EGYPT
Ghadames

Brega PCCP plant

Jaghboub

Northeast Jabal Hassouna wellfield

LIBYA

Sarir PCCP plant

Sarir wellfield
East Jabal Hassouna wellfield

Tazerbo

ALGERIA
Kufra

The first wellfields to be developed were

planned at Tazerbo and Sarir, in the east
and southeast of the country, to tap the
Sirte basin. A total of 284 wells were to be
drilled at the two locations, which would
ultimately pump 2 million cm/d of water.
This was to be followed by the development of three wellfields on the Hassouna
basin, which aimed to produce 2.5 million cm/d of water from 586 wells at the
MEED Insight

Phase IV
Phase III

NIGER

Phase I
Phase II
Reservoir

CHAD

Pipe production plant

PCCP=Pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe. Sources: GMRA, MEED

SUDAN

Plans for the

Great Man-made
River project were
first formulated in
the 1980s
northeast, east and west Jabal Hassouna
fields. The first two phases planned were
considered priorities, producing the
majority of the water supply projected
under the GMR programme and accounting for most of the capital outlay.
The development of a single wellfield at
Kufra was then planned, which would
add 1.68 million cm/d of supply. This
was to be followed by new wellfields at
Ghadames and Jaghboub, which would
further tap the Hassouna and Sirte basins.
The Ghadames project called for the construction of 144 wells to produce 90 million cubic metres a year (cm/y), while the
Jaghboub scheme was planned to produce
50 million cm/y from 40 wells.
Each wellfield was to be linked to storage
reservoirs and distribution networks for
domestic and agricultural purposes
through four-metre-diameter pipelines.
In the east, the Sarir, Tazerbo and Kufra
wellfields were to be connected to the
network, which would transport water to
www.meedinsight.com

68

The Great Man-made River wellfields

Number of wells

Projected production (kcm/d)

106

250

60

600

479

1,400

47

500

Brega pipe manufacturing

plant, water system

14

Sarir pipe manufacturing

plant, water system

14

Sarir wellfield system

126

1,000

Tazerbo wellfield

108

1,000

Kufra system

285

1,680

40

137

Ghadames system
Northeast Jabal Hassouna
system
East Jabal Hassouna system
West Jabal Hassouna system

Jaghboub

kcm/d=Thousand cubic metres a day. Sources: GMRA, MEED Insight

Planned reservoirs on the Great Man-made River project

Location
Ajdabiya holding reservoir

Planned capacity (million cm)

4

Al-Gardabiya reservoir

6.8

Omar Mukhtar reservoir

4.7

Grand Al-Gardabiya reservoir

Grand Omar Mukhtar reservoir
cm=Cubic metres. Sources: GMRA, MEED Insight

15.4
24

The Hassouna
project was designed
to transport water
directly to Tripoli
and Tarhouna
a holding reservoir at Ajdabiya and
then on to two larger reservoirs, called
Al-Gardabiya and Omar Mukhtar. The
separate Jaghboub system, close to the
Egyptian border, was designed to service
Tobruk and its surrounding area.
In the west, the Hassouna project was to
transport water directly to the capital,
Tripoli, as well as Tarhouna, while the
Ghadames scheme would serve the
coastal towns of Zuara and Azzawiya.
Eventually, the Kufra-Sarir-Tazerbo-SirteBenghazi system would be linked via
pipeline to the Hassouna-Tripoli network,
creating a nationwide system.
In total, the GMR project called for the construction of five major storage reservoirs
with total capacity of 55 million cubic
metres. By far, the largest, with a proposed
capacity of 24 million cubic metres, was
the Grand Omar Mukhtar reservoir.
A key part of the project was the construction of two PCCP manufacturing
plants at Sarir and Brega. Each plant was

MEED Insight

to be provided with water from specially

drilled wellfields. Seven wells were to be
drilled to supply the Brega plant with
14,000 cm/d of water, while three wells
were drilled to deliver 11,000 cm/d of
water for the Sirte facility. A 90MW power
plant was to provide energy at the Sarir
plant and the nearby drilling operations.
Construction was originally planned to be
carried out in three phases:
Phase 1 would cover the Kufra-TazerboSarir-Ajdabiya-Sirte-Benghazi systems
Phase 2 would take in the HassounaTripoli-Tarhouna network
Phase 3 would involve the JaghboubTobruk and Ghadames-Azzawiya-Zuara
system, along with the Sirte-Tripoli link
However, the plan was subsequently
revised, with another phase added. This
covered the development of the Kufra
field, the Kufra-Sarir pipeline and the
Sirte-Tripoli pipeline, which was removed
from the first and third part of the project.
The GMRA had also considered undertaking a fifth phase, which would link the
wellfield at Sarir Qattusah in the west of
the country to the Hassouna-Jifarah portion of the project. This phase would add
500,000 cm/d of production capacity to
the GMR, boosting overall output to a
peak of 7 million cm/d.
Under the 1983 masterplan prepared by
the GMRA and Brown & Root, it was
www.meedinsight.com

69

intended that South Koreas Dong Ah

Construction would be the main contractor for each phase, with the US engineering firm overseeing its work. However,
financial difficulties and concerns over
its performance meant that Dong Ah
only worked on the first two phases of
the scheme.

TUNISIA

Tripoli

Benghazi
Tobruk

Sirte

Phase 1
The GMRs first phase covered the
construction of the Tazerbo-Sarir-SirteBenghazi system, which is often referred
to as the SS/TB project. Dong Ah was
awarded the $3.8bn main construction
contract in 1983, which was largely completed a decade later.
While it carried out the majority of the
contract itself, the Korean contractor
also subcontracted out several packages,
including the construction of the Grand
Omar Mukhtar reservoir at Benghazi
and the Grand Al-Gardabiya reservoir
at Sirte, which was won by the local
Al-Nahr Construction. A number of elements of the first phase project were not
included in Dong Ahs scope, including
the well drilling contract, which was
awarded to Brazils Braspetro.
The first phase programme breaks down
into several distinct parts. The Tazerbo
wellfield is connected to a 170,000-cubicmetre collection tank, which is then
linked to the first major 256km pipeline
network. This transports water to Sarir,
MEED Insight

where there are two more 170,000-cubicmetre tanks and the separate Sarir collection system joins the main pipeline.

The Great Man-made River phase 1 network

Ajdabiya

EGYPT

From here, two four-metre-diameter pipelines extend a further 380km north to the
Ajdabiya reservoir. The two pipelines
then travel east and west to Benghazi and
Sirte, where they meet end reservoirs as
well as the Grand Omar Mukhtar and
Grand Al-Gardabiya reservoirs, built to
stockpile water in case of drought.

Brega PCCP plant

Ghadames

Jaghboub

LIBYA

Sarir PCCP plant

Sarir wellfield

Tazerbo

ALGERIA
Kufra

NIGER
Pipeline
Reservoir

CHAD

Pipe production plant

PCCP=Pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe. Sources: GMRA, MEED Insight

SUDAN

Dong Ah designed and built the PCCP

plants at Sirte and Brega and was also
contracted to operate both factories for
the duration of the first phase. The Sarir
plant has the capacity to produce up to
120 pipeline sections a day and the Benghazi plant can construct 80 pipeline sections a day.
As part of phase 1, the contractor also
built 1,500km of road to transport equipment along, as well as offices, workshops,
accommodation and support facilities.
These facilities have since been consolidated into operations and maintenance
stations at Tazerbo, Sarir, Brega, Sirte
and Benghazi. In addition, Dong Ah and
Japans Itochu Corporation built the
90MW Sarir power plant.
GMR phase 1 was inaugurated in 1993,
although overall completion was not
achieved until 1996/97.

www.meedinsight.com

70

Phase 2
Dong Ah started work on the second
phase of the project in 1986, although it
was not until 1990 that it was officially
awarded the $6.1bn construction contract.
During this phase, which cost $7.4bn in
total, 2,115km of pipeline was installed to
carry 2.5 million cm/d of water from the
east, west and northeast Jabal Hassouna
wellfields to Tarhouna on the Jifarah Plain
and then on to Tripoli. In addition, associated pumping stations and regulating
MEED Insight

Dong Ah started
work on the second
phase of the Great
Man-made River
project in 1986

tanks were built, along with 2,155km

of road.
Tripoli decided to review the project in
1991, when some 25 per cent of the
scheme had already been completed, following issues related to collapsing wells
on phase one. With coastal aquifers
becoming depleted faster than expected
and urban water demand increasing, however, Tripoli decided to expand Dong Ahs
phase 2 contract scope, adding a 380km

line to link the Hassouna field with

Tarhouna and Tripoli at an estimated
extra cost of $760m.
The initial scope of the second-phase
project had only covered the construction
of a central 1,715km pipeline linking the
wellfield with Tripoli. The eastern line,
which included a station at Assdada,
allowed the system to be integrated into
the phase one pipeline via a second pipeline linking it with facilities at Sirte. The
www.meedinsight.com

71

central pipeline has a capacity of

880,000 cm/d, while the eastern
branch can carry 1.2 million cm/d.
In 1996, the South Korean firm was
awarded an additional $350m contract to
drill about 260 new wells at Hassouna to
boost production at the field. This extension came to be known as Hassouna West.
In the same year, Dong Ah was informed
that it would be awarded the $6bn contract to build the third phase of the
project, which then covered the JaghboubTobruk and Ghadames-Azzawiya-Zuara
systems, along with the Sirte-Tripoli link.
However, in 1997, Tripoli decided to
competitively tender the phase and split
the work up into seven individual packages. In December of that year, Frances
Dumez submitted the lowest price for the
first of these contracts, covering the SirteTripoli link and associated pumping stations, with a price of about $1bn. However, a drop in oil prices and increasing
political instability in the country saw the
project put on hold and no further deals
were tendered.
More worrying for Dong Ah was the onset
of the 1997 Asian crisis. Unable to cope
with debts of about $3bn, it slowed the
pace of work on the second phase of GMR
and in August 2000, applied for an
18-month extension to the phase 2 works.
This led to disputes between Tripoli and
the South Korean contractor, which was
MEED Insight

In 1997, Libya
decided to split
phase two of the
Great Man-made
River project

The Great Man-made River phase 2 network

TUNISIA

Tripoli

Benghazi
Tobruk

Sirte
Ajdabiya

eventually liquidated by the South

Korean government in 2001.
To ensure the second phase of the
project was completed, an agreement
was reached between Seoul and Tripoli
whereby Dong Ahs Libyan operations
were taken over by its former partner on
the project, South Koreas Korea Express.
The Libyan operation set up a consortium
with its former subcontractor Al-Nahr,
taking a 50 per cent stake in a new venture. This was later reduced to 25 per cent
and today, Al-Nahr is wholly owned by
the GMRA.
Several other international contractors
worked on phase 2. These included
Frances Vinci Construction, which won
a $410m contract to build pumping stations at Al-Gardabiya, Wadi Wishkah
and Assdada in 1999.

EGYPT

Northeast Jabal Hassouna wellfield

LIBYA
East Jabal Hassouna wellfield

ALGERIA

NIGER
Phase II
Reservoir

CHAD

Tripoli-Sirte pipeline

Sources: GMRA, MEED Insight

SUDAN

www.meedinsight.com

72

Phase 3
In 2001, a consortium of Japans Nippon
Koei and the UKs Halcrow was awarded
the $15.5m contract to design the third
phase of the project, with a reduced
scope. This covered the construction of
pumping stations at the Kufra wellfield,
a 380km pipeline linking the field with
the Sarir/Tazerbo network, along with a
140,000-cubic-metre regulating tank, flow
control stations and roads. The contract
ran until 2009 and required new studies
of the field to be carried out.

The Great Man-made River phase 3 network

TUNISIA

Tripoli

Benghazi
Tobruk

Sirte
Ajdabiya

EGYPT

Brega PCCP plant

Jaghboub

In 2005, Turkeys Tekfen was awarded the

$500m contract to build the pipeline linking Kufra with Sarir, while in October
2010, Canadas SNC Lavalin won a $450m
contract to design and build the Kufra
wellfield system by 2015.

GMR 1

LIBYA

Sarir PCCP plant

Sarir wellfield

Tazerbo

ALGERIA
GMR 3

Kufra

NIGER
Phase III
Phase I
Reservoir

CHAD

Pipe production plant

PCCP=Pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe; GMR=Great Man-made River. Sources: GMRA, MEED

MEED Insight

SUDAN

www.meedinsight.com

73

Phase 4
In 2004, Al-Nahr was awarded a $960m
contract for the fourth phase of the
project, covering drilling, construction
of production facilities and installation
of pipeline systems for the GhadamesAzzawiya-Zuara and Jaghboub-Tobruk
systems at a cost of $960m. The following
year, the company awarded a design and
project management subcontract to Brown
& Root. The Ghadames-Zuara-Azzawiya
section was due to be completed by the
end of 2011 although this was delayed by
the civil war.
Since 1983, the GMRA has awarded more
than $15bn worth of contracts, with the
majority going to Dong Ah. Its sister
agency, the GMR Water Utilisation
Authority (GMRWUA), also became a significant client, placing over $2bn worth of
contracts for reservoirs, water distribution
networks and infrastructure for new tracts
of agricultural land.
Agriculture was always earmarked as
the main beneficiary of the GMR project.
From its inception, Tripoli set a target for
at least 80 per cent of GMR water to be
used for agricultural production, by irrigating up to 160,000 hectares of land.
However, because of a rapid decline in
water production from Libyas coastal
aquifer system, as well as the slow pace
of development of the countrys desalination network, the target was lowered to
66-70 per cent prior to the civil war.
MEED Insight

The Great Man-made River phase 4 network

Azzawiya
Zuara

TUNISIA

Tripoli

Benghazi
Tobruk

Sirte
Ajdabiya

EGYPT
Ghadames

Jaghboub

LIBYA

ALGERIA

NIGER

Phase IV Eastern Section

CHAD

Phase IV Western Section

Sources: GMRA, MEED

SUDAN

www.meedinsight.com

74

GMR infrastructure sustained damage during the civil war, most notably the Brega
PCCP plant, which was hit by Nato airstrikes in July 2011. At the time, Nato said
that the plant had been targeted as it was
under the control of Gaddafi loyalists and
was home to multiple rocket launchers.
In the immediate aftermath of the civil
war, it was unclear how much priority the
new government in Tripoli would attach
to completing existing contracts on the
GMR, or to awarding outstanding work.
The GMR always was a highly political
project for Gaddafi, who described it as
the eighth wonder of the world. It is
unlikely to be abandoned completely,
given the vast sums already invested in it
and its growing contribution to water supply. Moreover, if future investment is not
forthcoming, then an alternative water
production strategy will need to be developed and quickly, or Libya will face growing water shortages.

The Great Manmade River project

always was a highly
political scheme for
Muammar Gaddafi

Major construction contracts awarded on the Great Man-made River project

Phase

Description

Contract type

Phase I

Sarir-Sirte/TazerboBenghazi system

Main construction
contract

Reservoirs

Construction subcontract

Tazerbo/Sarir wellfields

Drilling

Hassouna-Tripoli-Tarhouna/
Assdada system

Main construction
contract

6,100

Dong Ah

Hassouna-Tarhouna system

Main construction
contract

760

Dong Ah

Hassouna wellfield

Drilling

360

Dong Ah

Al-Gardabiya/Assdada
pumping stations

Main construction
contract

410

Vinci

Al-Gardabiya-Assdada
pipeline

Main construction
contract

na

Kufra wellfield system

Main construction
contract

450

SNC Lavalin

Kufra-Tazerbo/Sarir pipeline
system

Main construction
contract

500

Tekfen

Sarir pipe production plant

Revamp and operation

Ghadames/Zuara/Azzawiya
system

Design, construction,
operation of GhadamesZuara-Azzawiya system;
Jaghboub-Tobruk system

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 4

Value ($m)

Contractor

3,800

Dong Ah

na

Al-Nahr
Construction

na

Braspetro

Al-Nahr/Vinci

1,100

SNC Lavalin

960

Al-Nahr
Construction

na=Not available. Source: MEED Insight

Planned water usage for the first three phases of the GMR project (cm/d)
Municipal

Agricultural

Industrial

Total

Phase 1

410,170

1,506,030

83,800

2,000,000

Phase 2

1316090

1,175,660

8,250

2,500,000

Phase 3

253,000

1,427,000

1,680,000

GMR=Great Man-made River; cm/d=Cubic metres a day. Source: GMRA

MEED Insight

www.meedinsight.com

75