"The Eighth Wonder of the World" by Muammar Gaddafi
The Western world called this man a dictator who oppresses his people. But numerous facts state the opposite. In fact, Muammar Gaddafi has done a lot of good for his country. But the implementation of the most ambitious of his designs, which could change the world, he did not have time to finish.
The largest civil engineering project of our time
The largest engineering and construction project that has appeared on our planet in recent decades does not belong to any developed world power. It was developed in Libya, a third world country. This is the so-called "great man-made river", which is also called the eighth wonder of the world.
This project was to turn the dry Libyan desert into a blooming oasis and feed millions of hungry Africans. Its preliminary cost amounted to $ 25 billion, of which not a single cent was taken in the form of a loan from the International Monetary Fund or other world financial organizations. Perhaps this was one of the main reasons for the elimination of Muammar Gaddafi.
Inexhaustible water reserves
The beginning of this story can be called the 60s of the last century, when four natural underground reservoirs were discovered in southern Libya, the total volume of which was approximately 35 thousand cubic kilometers. For comparison, the volume of Baikal, the world's largest natural storage of fresh water, is only 23 thousand cubic kilometers. But unlike Baikal, which is exposed to pollution, underground water is crystal clear.
But that is not all. Libyan underground water bodies are only part of the Nubian aquifer. In addition to the four reservoirs in Libya, there are seven more that belong to Egypt, Sudan and Chad. Water is under a layer of ferruginous sandstone with a thickness of 100 to 500 meters. Their total volume is simply colossal - 150 thousand cubic kilometers! This is slightly less than the total world fresh water reserves that are available in the water bodies of the Earth and amount to 200 thousand cubic kilometers. Moreover, a significant part of the world's reserves is polluted with waste.
The proven reserves of groundwater in Africa would be enough for mankind for 4-5 thousand years.
If we take the value of these resources lying in the bowels of Libya, then it is several times higher than the value of Libyan oil reserves, which was the country's main source of income.
Therefore, there is doubt that the war in this country broke out only because of oil. Perhaps the main reason was water.
Little-known construction site of the century
But it is one thing to have opportunities and resources, and another thing to take advantage of them. This requires considerable effort and financial investment.
The project was designed for a long period. It began to be implemented in Libya during the reign of Muammar Gaddafi. His dream was to make the country as green as the flag of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. And he did everything to make this dream come true.
In 1984, Gaddafi laid the first stone of a new grand construction, which had no analogues in world practice and lasted several decades. The Western media either bypassed this project, or openly scoffed at it. And only in 2008 the Guinness Book of Records recognized it as the largest irrigation project in the history of the planet.
The fact is that before the laying of pipelines in Libya, only 4 percent of the territory was considered habitable. Everything else is a desert. Only about 6 million people lived in the vast territory. Compared to neighboring Egypt, where the population was 80 million, this is catastrophically small. Most of the population of Libya is concentrated in the north of the country, off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
The project was really bold. It was required to lay pipelines across the country to cities on the coast, as well as irrigate the land to grow crops, especially cereals. This would allow the country to refuse food imports from abroad.
And then, with the help of specialists from South Korea, the world's first plant for the production of giant reinforced concrete pipes was built in the city of Al-Buraika. During its operation, the plant produced about 500 thousand pipes 7,5 meters long, 4 meters in diameter and weighing more than 80 tons each. They had to go to lay pipelines from the south to the north. Their total length by the time the construction was completed was to be 4 thousand kilometers. It was planned to drill about 1300 wells.
Most of the water was used to irrigate the fields. For watering animals, irrigation ditches were created. The green fields created in the middle of the desert were clearly visible even from space. They had the form of regular green circles with a diameter of up to 3 kilometers on a gray-yellow desert background.
For travel construction equipmentused in pipe laying, 3,7 thousand kilometers of roads were built.
All materials for construction, pipes and pumps were made in Libya, purchases abroad were not made.
Although funding came from the country's budget, it could not do without foreign participation. Specialists from the USA, Turkey, Japan, England, Germany and other countries were involved. Unskilled work was helped by workers from Vietnam, Bangladesh, and the Philippines.
Although the government actively attracted people from coastal areas to move inland to work in the fields, people were reluctant to do so. Then the Libyan authorities began to invite peasants from neighboring Egypt for agricultural work, offering them preferential conditions.
The project was completed on 2/3. It was not possible to finish it; the civil war provoked by foreign special services and the NATO bombing prevented it.
But even what they managed to do is impressive. The cost of fresh water began to be about 35 cents per cubic meter, which cost about 11 times cheaper than desalinated sea water. For the population, fresh water was supplied free of charge. Moreover, Libya began to sell water to the Egyptians. But most importantly, the Libyans have ceased to depend on foreign food supplies.
Breaking - not building
When Muammar Gaddafi delivered a speech on the anniversary of the construction of the Great Man-Made River, he uttered the following phrase:
He perfectly understood that the rich and independent Libya, which serves as an example for other African countries, is not needed by the West. But he could not protect his country from an artificially provoked catastrophe. He did not have strong allies, and he failed to confront the United States alone.
As a result of NATO bombing, almost everything that was created for many years was destroyed. Three years before the assassination of Gaddafi, the pipe factory was destroyed. A “duck” was launched, which hides tanks and other military equipment in the underground pipelines of Gaddafi. Then, with the help of giant two-ton bombs capable of hitting targets underground, they began to destroy pipelines. Shocks on power supply systems damaged irrigation systems even where the pipelines remained intact.
Green fields began to dry up, foreign workers and peasants returned to their homeland, and chaos reigned in the country.
Europe rejoiced in the killing by the opposition of the so-called dictator, Muammar Gaddafi. And very soon, they received thousands of illegal immigrants who surged from Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and other countries where the Western countries “put things in order”.
Some experts believe that the previous wave of emigration is just a light breeze. But a real storm will erupt in about the 30s, when due to lack of water, and hence food, a massive relocation of African people to prosperous Europe will begin. And no army can stop this flow, because starvation will breathe in the back of these people.
The largest civil engineering project of our time
The largest engineering and construction project that has appeared on our planet in recent decades does not belong to any developed world power. It was developed in Libya, a third world country. This is the so-called "great man-made river", which is also called the eighth wonder of the world.
This project was to turn the dry Libyan desert into a blooming oasis and feed millions of hungry Africans. Its preliminary cost amounted to $ 25 billion, of which not a single cent was taken in the form of a loan from the International Monetary Fund or other world financial organizations. Perhaps this was one of the main reasons for the elimination of Muammar Gaddafi.
Inexhaustible water reserves
The beginning of this story can be called the 60s of the last century, when four natural underground reservoirs were discovered in southern Libya, the total volume of which was approximately 35 thousand cubic kilometers. For comparison, the volume of Baikal, the world's largest natural storage of fresh water, is only 23 thousand cubic kilometers. But unlike Baikal, which is exposed to pollution, underground water is crystal clear.
But that is not all. Libyan underground water bodies are only part of the Nubian aquifer. In addition to the four reservoirs in Libya, there are seven more that belong to Egypt, Sudan and Chad. Water is under a layer of ferruginous sandstone with a thickness of 100 to 500 meters. Their total volume is simply colossal - 150 thousand cubic kilometers! This is slightly less than the total world fresh water reserves that are available in the water bodies of the Earth and amount to 200 thousand cubic kilometers. Moreover, a significant part of the world's reserves is polluted with waste.
The proven reserves of groundwater in Africa would be enough for mankind for 4-5 thousand years.
If we take the value of these resources lying in the bowels of Libya, then it is several times higher than the value of Libyan oil reserves, which was the country's main source of income.
Therefore, there is doubt that the war in this country broke out only because of oil. Perhaps the main reason was water.
Little-known construction site of the century
But it is one thing to have opportunities and resources, and another thing to take advantage of them. This requires considerable effort and financial investment.
The project was designed for a long period. It began to be implemented in Libya during the reign of Muammar Gaddafi. His dream was to make the country as green as the flag of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. And he did everything to make this dream come true.
In 1984, Gaddafi laid the first stone of a new grand construction, which had no analogues in world practice and lasted several decades. The Western media either bypassed this project, or openly scoffed at it. And only in 2008 the Guinness Book of Records recognized it as the largest irrigation project in the history of the planet.
The fact is that before the laying of pipelines in Libya, only 4 percent of the territory was considered habitable. Everything else is a desert. Only about 6 million people lived in the vast territory. Compared to neighboring Egypt, where the population was 80 million, this is catastrophically small. Most of the population of Libya is concentrated in the north of the country, off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
The project was really bold. It was required to lay pipelines across the country to cities on the coast, as well as irrigate the land to grow crops, especially cereals. This would allow the country to refuse food imports from abroad.
And then, with the help of specialists from South Korea, the world's first plant for the production of giant reinforced concrete pipes was built in the city of Al-Buraika. During its operation, the plant produced about 500 thousand pipes 7,5 meters long, 4 meters in diameter and weighing more than 80 tons each. They had to go to lay pipelines from the south to the north. Their total length by the time the construction was completed was to be 4 thousand kilometers. It was planned to drill about 1300 wells.
Most of the water was used to irrigate the fields. For watering animals, irrigation ditches were created. The green fields created in the middle of the desert were clearly visible even from space. They had the form of regular green circles with a diameter of up to 3 kilometers on a gray-yellow desert background.
For travel construction equipmentused in pipe laying, 3,7 thousand kilometers of roads were built.
All materials for construction, pipes and pumps were made in Libya, purchases abroad were not made.
Although funding came from the country's budget, it could not do without foreign participation. Specialists from the USA, Turkey, Japan, England, Germany and other countries were involved. Unskilled work was helped by workers from Vietnam, Bangladesh, and the Philippines.
Although the government actively attracted people from coastal areas to move inland to work in the fields, people were reluctant to do so. Then the Libyan authorities began to invite peasants from neighboring Egypt for agricultural work, offering them preferential conditions.
The project was completed on 2/3. It was not possible to finish it; the civil war provoked by foreign special services and the NATO bombing prevented it.
But even what they managed to do is impressive. The cost of fresh water began to be about 35 cents per cubic meter, which cost about 11 times cheaper than desalinated sea water. For the population, fresh water was supplied free of charge. Moreover, Libya began to sell water to the Egyptians. But most importantly, the Libyans have ceased to depend on foreign food supplies.
Breaking - not building
When Muammar Gaddafi delivered a speech on the anniversary of the construction of the Great Man-Made River, he uttered the following phrase:
Now that this achievement of the Libyan people has become apparent, the US threat against our country will double!
He perfectly understood that the rich and independent Libya, which serves as an example for other African countries, is not needed by the West. But he could not protect his country from an artificially provoked catastrophe. He did not have strong allies, and he failed to confront the United States alone.
As a result of NATO bombing, almost everything that was created for many years was destroyed. Three years before the assassination of Gaddafi, the pipe factory was destroyed. A “duck” was launched, which hides tanks and other military equipment in the underground pipelines of Gaddafi. Then, with the help of giant two-ton bombs capable of hitting targets underground, they began to destroy pipelines. Shocks on power supply systems damaged irrigation systems even where the pipelines remained intact.
Green fields began to dry up, foreign workers and peasants returned to their homeland, and chaos reigned in the country.
Europe rejoiced in the killing by the opposition of the so-called dictator, Muammar Gaddafi. And very soon, they received thousands of illegal immigrants who surged from Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and other countries where the Western countries “put things in order”.
Some experts believe that the previous wave of emigration is just a light breeze. But a real storm will erupt in about the 30s, when due to lack of water, and hence food, a massive relocation of African people to prosperous Europe will begin. And no army can stop this flow, because starvation will breathe in the back of these people.
Information