2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Hillary's policies turned Libya into a terrorist hell hole [View all]polly7
(20,582 posts)posts made here by others on the topic of Libya. I wish I'd somehow been able to link to them all - they blew my mind at the time. Bvar22 in particular, mainer and Sabrina1 were amazing sources of information. Yes, the Great Man-Made River was a huge accomplishment - look what happened to it:
http://humanrightsinvestigations.org/2011/07/27/great-man-made-river-nato-bombs/
The Great Man-Made River
Libyans like to call the Great Man-Made River The eighth wonder of the world.
According to a March 2006 report by the BBC the industrialisation of Libya following the Great Al-Fatah Revolution in 1969, put strain on water supplies and coastal aquifers became contaminated with sea water, to such an extent that the water in Benghazi was undrinkable. Finding a supply of fresh, clean water became a government priority and fortunately oil exploration in the 1950s had revealed vast aquifers beneath Libyas southern desert.
In August 1984, Muammar Al Qadhafi laid the foundation stone for the pipe production plant at Brega. The Great Man-Made River Project had begun. Adam Kuwairi, a senior figure in the Great Man-Made River Authority (GMRA), vividly remembers the impact the fresh water had on him and his family:
The water changed lives. For the first time in our history, there was water in the tap for washing, shaving and showering. The quality of life is better now, and its impacting on the whole country.
On 3 April Libya warned that NATO-led air strikes could cause a human and environmental disaster if air strikes damaged the Great Man-Made River project.
(Sorry, link no longer works.)