> Libya's Great Man-Made River Project And NATO War Crimes
>
> http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-GMMR-Project-Libya-s-by-Frances-
> Thomas-110901-229.html
>
> OpEd News
> September 1, 2011
>
> The GMMR Project: Libya's achievement and NATO as war criminal
> party-pooper
> By Frances Thomas
>
> September 1st is the anniversary of an event little known in the
> West. Today, twenty years on, the people who deserve to be celebrating
> it, are instead enduring a war. Yet the achievement changed their
> lives greatly and merits recognition.
>
> A tap was turned on in Libya. From an enormous ancient aquifer, deep
> below the Sahara Desert, fresh water began to flow north through 1200
> kilometres of pipeline to the coastal areas where 90% of Libyan people
> live, delivering around one million cubic metres of pure water per day
> to the cities of Benghazi and Sirte.
>
> Crowds gathered in the desert for the inaugural ceremony. Phase I of
> the largest civil engineering venture in the world, the Great Man-made
> River Project, had been completed.
>
> It was during the 1953 search for new oilfields in southern Libya
> that the ancient water aquifers were first discovered, four huge
> basins with estimated capacities each ranging between 4,800 and 20,000
> cubic kms. Yes, that's cubic kilometres. There is so much water that
> Libya had recently also offered it to Egypt for their needs.
>
> After the bloodless revolution of 1969, also on September 1, the new
> government nationalised the oil companies and spent much of the oil
> revenues to harness the supply of fresh water from the desert aquifers
> by putting in hundreds of bore wells. Muammar Gaddafi's dream was to
> provide fresh water for everyone, and to turn the desert green, making
> Libya self-sufficient in food production. He established large farms
> and encouraged the people to move to the desert. But many preferred
> life on the coast and wouldn't go.
>
> So Gaddafi next conceived a plan to bring the water to the people.
> Feasibility studies were carried out by the Libyan government in the
> seventies and in 1983 the Great Man-made River Authority was set up.
> The project began the following year, fully funded by the Libyan
> government. The almost $30 billion cost to date has been without the
> need of any international loans. Nor has there been any charge on the
> people, who do not pay for their reticulated water, which is regarded
> in Libya to be a human right and therefore free.
>
> GMMR Project figures are staggering. The 'rivers' are a
> 4000-kilometre network of 4m diameter lined concrete pipes, buried
> below the desert sands to prevent evaporation. There are 1300 wells,
> 500,000 sections of pipe, 3700 kms of haul roads, and 250 million
> cubic metres of excavation. All material for the project was locally
> manufactured. Large reservoirs provide storage, and pumping stations
> control the flow into the cities. The pipeline first reached Tripoli
> in 1996 and when Phase V is completed, the water will allow about
> 155,000 hectares of land to be cultivated.
>
> To achieve all this, construction work was tendered and many overseas
> companies, including from the US, Korea, Turkey, Britain, Japan and
> Germany took up contracts for each Phase, and some have worked for
> decades in Libya. The project has not been without problems, including
> faulty materials and financial difficulties within some of the
> contracting firms. Since the NATO air attacks on Libya began in March,
> most foreign nationals have returned home, including those employed on
> the hydro scheme. The final phase of the Great Man-made River Project
> is stalled.
>
> Libyan people put their hearts into work on the GMMRP from the
> beginning, and years ago took on most of the managerial and technical
> positions as their expert knowledge increased, with government policy
> encouraging their education, training and employment. They proudly
> call the GMMR "the eighth wonder of the world."
>
> The project was so well recognised internationally that UNESCO in
> 1999 accepted Libya's offer to fund an award named after it, the Great
> Man-Made River International Water Prize , the purpose of which is to
> "reward remarkable scientific research work on water usage in arid
> areas".
>
> Gaddafi was often ridiculed in the West for persevering with such an
> ambitious project. Pejorative terms such "pipedream", "pet project"
> and "mad dog" appeared in UK and US media. Despite a certain amount of
> awe for the enormity of the construction, the Great Man-made River was
> often dismissed as a "vanity project" and then rarely mentioned in
> western media. But truth is, it's a world class water delivery system,
> and often visited by overseas engineers and planners wanting to learn
> from Libyan expertise in water transfer hydro-engineering.
>
> On 22 July this year, four months into the air strikes to "protect
> civilians", NATO forces hit the GMMR water supply pipeline. For good
> measure the following day, NATO destroyed the factory near Brega that
> produces the pipes to repair it, along with killing six guards there.
>
> NATO air strikes on the electricity supply, as well as depriving
> civilians of electricity, mean that water pumping stations are no
> longer operating in areas even where the pipelines remain intact.
> Water supply for the 70% of the population who depend on the piped
> supply has been compromised with this damage to Libya's vital
> infrastructure.
>
> Oh, and by the way, attacking essential civilian infrastructure is a
> war crime.
>
> Today in Sirte, which along with Benghazi was one of the first two
> cities to receive the water, there should be a celebration to mark the
> twenty years since fresh reticulated water first came to their city,
> and Gaddafi's vision should be honoured.
>
> But today Sirte is encircled by the rebels, and right now is being
> carpet bombed by NATO. The civilians are terrorised, and many families
> have tried to flee. But the rebels block all the exits, they kill the
> men, and send the women and children back into the city to be bombed.
> In the media the rebels are reported to have given Sirte until
> Saturday to surrender before they commence a full attack. But that's
> not what's happening really.
>
> September 1, 2011, will be remembered in history for NATO's
> complicity in the massacre of the people of Sirte.
>
> Back in 1991, at the gala opening of GMMRP Phase I, and maybe
> recalling the 1986 bombing of his home (which was carried out by US
> military on Reagan's orders), Muammar Gaddafi spoke these words to the
> invited international dignitaries and assembled crowd:
>
> "After this achievement, American threats against Libya will
> double...The United States will make excuses, (but) the real reason is
> to stop this achievement, to keep the people of Libya oppressed."
>
> His words were prophetic.
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>
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