A significant man-made waterway, believed to be the largest irrigation project globally, is set to undergo further expansion through a new £5.1 billion phase. The Great Man-Made River (GMMR) is a remarkable engineering achievement in the African desert, created to transport ancient water to a dry North African nation facing water scarcity due to its harsh climate.
Covering the entirety of Libya’s land, 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 prehistoric ice age.
Situated beneath the Sahara Desert and spanning parts of Libya, Egypt, Chad, and Sudan, the NSAS is one of the oldest and largest aquifers on Earth, holding vast reserves of freshwater.
Discovered during oil exploration in 1953, Libya initiated the GMMR project about ten years later in the late 1960s. Financed by the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the GMMR was praised as a monumental infrastructure endeavor, boasting an estimated budget of $25 billion (£18.5 billion).
With a massive budget required for materials, the GMMR could allegedly construct “20 Great Pyramids of Giza.” The Great Man-Made River Authority (GMMRA) estimates the project consumes around five million tonnes of cement and steel wires long enough to circle the Earth 280 times.
The project is divided into five major phases, with the first phase completed in August 1991. The operational pipelines of the GMMRA span 1,750 miles, with an additional 2,485 miles in various stages, delivering approximately 1.7 billion gallons of water daily.
As of December 2025, the fifth phase is nearing completion after three decades. The expansion aims to reach rural and northern areas that are currently unconnected.
Challenges faced during the project include the 2011 civil war, leading to funding reductions, power failures, infrastructure damage, and difficulties in importing spare parts.
Designed to supply water to densely populated coastal regions in Libya, the GMMR provides an alternative to the overexploited coastal aquifers and costly desalination processes.
The GMMRA considers the project essential and strategic, potentially solving water shortages for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes in Libya.
Concerns over economic sustainability arise due to a gap between production costs and consumer prices. Moreover, the project relies on non-renewable resources, with concerns that supplies could deplete by the end of the century.
