THE GREAT MAN-MADE RIVER

THE GREAT MAN-MADE RIVER

The largest construction project in the history of the world is ongoing in the country of Libya. I worked for a major player in the project and I silently cheered its success. I'll explain.

Libya is a north African country that lies on the Mediterranean Sea and extends into the Sahara Desert. In 1953, while searching for oil in the southern desert regions, a large water aquifer (an underground lake) was found. Libya is sparsely populated because there isn't enough water to support more people. A city or a country cannot grow without water for drinking and for irrigation. Very expensive desalination plants supported some of the coastal cities.

In 1983, the government of Libya committed itself to getting the water from the desert to the cities (including Tripoli the capital and largest city) along the coast. The distance from the water source to the cities is equivalent to the distance from Atlanta to Chicago. Two US firms were hired to design and oversee the building of the project. One was the Houston based engineering construction firm of Brown & Root. The other was my employer, the largest American manufacturer of concrete water pipe, Price Brothers Company of Dayton, Ohio. The actual construction work was done by Dong Ah, a Korean firm.

The work included drilling wells into the aquifer; installing pumps in the wells to move the water; construction of water treatment plants to purify the water; installation of pipe lines to carry the water. The big obstacle was the pipe. Two 13 foot (4m) diameter pipe lines layed side-by-side were required to carry enough water to make the project worthwhile. These are pipes so large you could drive a bus through them. The only way to get these pipes into the desert was to build the plants to make them on the jobsite. Two plants were built-one at the well site and another half way to the coast.

The work began in 1984 and continues today. The first water reached Tripoli in 1996. More piping and additional treatment plants are being installed. Clean water is flowing to reservoirs along the Mediterranean coast.

Are you wondering why you never heard of this project? Timing! Timing! Timing!

In the early eighties, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was a staunch supporter of the PLO and a protector of terrorists, according to our government. Libya became a target of American President Ronald Reagan. Economic sanctions were imposed and American firms were restricted in their dealings with Libya. This happened just after contracts were awarded. Price Brothers officials had to get State Department approval to attend the ground breaking ceremonies. Each sale of material had to be monitored by our government. Price Brothers had to bring the Korean contractor's managers into Dayton to instruct them on the manufacture and installation of the pipe instead of doing it at the jobsite because of government travel restrictions. Libya was thought of so poorly in the US at this time that Price Brothers was averse to advertising the fact that it was taking part in the project for fear of a backlash from their American customers. What could have been a huge advertising coup for the American company fizzled out. What a shame.