The eighth wonder of the world. Great man-made river of Libya
River rafting is not only a sport, but also an excellent leisure activity. It is able to raise the adrenaline to its peak and at the same time is an unforgettable vacation.
In Russia, rafting is practiced in mountainous areas, because there is not a single artificial route built for this purpose. Abroad, however, the situation is different. Here are four man-made rivers that are perfect for rafting enthusiasts.
The Eiskanal was the first artificial river in the world created for rafting. It was built in 1972 for summer Olympic Games in Munich. Its bed, lined with cement, is used today for fans of this sport. Recently, the world kayak slalom championship has been held here.
The second artificial watercourse in Europe was Ondrej Cibak Whitewater in Slovakia. This canal harnesses the water power of a dam on the Vah River, the second largest in the country. Like its rival in Germany, this stretch of water has its own spectator stands and hosts many kayaking competitions.
One of the largest urban fast rivers, can be found in Columbus, in American state Georgia. The path of lively water runs right through the city center and stretches for four kilometers. It offers daily rafting boat excursions for beginners and entire families.
The watercourse, almost 250 meters long, is open to everyone, regardless of experience level. Although it is of very short length, an artificial river can provide thrill, since the flow rate can be changed by simply pressing a button. In addition, there is a school where people can learn all the secrets of rafting, this extreme sport.
October 20 marks the next anniversary of the death of Muammar Gaddafi at the hands of al-Qaeda militants, used by NATO in Libya as a ground force to overthrow the only regime of Arab socialism. The West accused the leader of the Jamahiriya of encroaching on the income of transnational corporations (TNCs), which ensure the balance of the golden billion. Colonel Gaddafi's global projects - irrigation of the Libyan desert, the pan-African currency "golden dinar" and the nationalization of a third of oil production - made Libya the leader of all of Africa, depriving Western TNCs of the monopoly on the supply of food, water and pumping out oil. That's why US President Obama said Gaddafi's death reaffirms "American leadership in the world."
Indeed, all of black Africa is still pledged to dollar slavery, Libyan oil is captured by ISIS, and the “Great man-made river"is on the verge of being captured by militants. The Islamists' interest in a large fresh water reservoir, 20 km east of Sirte, is not accidental. In North Africa, as in the Middle East, drinking water costs three times more than oil, and its reserves in Libya are greater than oil: 35 thousand cubic meters. km of artesian water against 5.1 billion tons of oil worth 60 trillion. Euro. This explains why Gaddafi, 30 years ago, foreshadowed a doubling of “US threats against Libya”: “The United States will do everything under a different subtext, but the real reason will stop this achievement...". For the same reason, companies selling fresh water became the main sponsors of the war against Libya in France.
“The Great Man-Made River” is the name in Libya for the giant water supply system that connects the underground sea of artesian water in the Nubian oasis with largest cities Libya. Its construction began in 1984 and cost $25 billion. It is recognized as the largest irrigation structure in the world, and Gaddafi himself called it “the eighth wonder of the world.” Four thousand pipes, four meters in diameter, made of prestressed reinforced concrete are combined underground into complex system with a thousand aquiducts, mines and wells up to 500 meters deep. It pumps 6.5 million cubic meters. m of water per day and irrigates 160 thousand hectares of land. For its construction it was necessary to excavate 85 million cubic meters. m of soil. It owes its construction to intelligence oil fields in southern Libya in the early 50s of the last century, when instead of oil, the Nubian aquifer was discovered.
However, the economic effect of the “Great Man-Made River” turned out to be even more ambitious. Artificial irrigation not only provided Libya with food independence, but also turned it into an importer of cereals and corn. Due to the fact that the project was built without foreign investment, Libya managed to maintain the lowest price for drinking water in the world - 36 cents per cubic meter. For comparison: water in the EU costs 2 euros, and for sale to Arab and African countries USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia They ship for $3.75 - $4. Gaddafi destroyed world prices for artesian water and intended, by irrigating the North African deserts, to solve the problem of hunger in Africa in order to once and for all provide the countries of the region with economic independence.
Muammar Gaddafi presented the project as a gift to the third world and told the celebrants: “After this achievement, the US threats against Libya will double…. The United States will do everything under a different pretext, but the real reason will be to stop this achievement in order to leave the people of Libya oppressed.”
This was a real slap in the face to the entire West, about which the Western press was stubbornly silent. After all, the West benefits from water shortages in order to support developing countries high prices on water and speculate on this humanitarian problem for the sake of their political influence in third world countries. In southern Sudan, the IMF and World Bank blocked the construction of a canal on the White Nile back in 1980, and overpopulated Egypt was prevented from bringing peasants out onto the plain from the narrow floodplain and Nile Delta. Libya ranks first in the world in terms of fresh water reserves; its value is 40 times higher than the value of its oil reserves. That's why the overthrow of Gaddafi became the first war over drinking water.
The Great Manmade River (GMR) is a complex network of water conduits that supplies desert areas and the coast of Libya with water from the Nubian Aquifer. By some estimates, this is the largest engineering project in existence. This huge system of pipes and aqueducts, which also includes more than 1,300 wells more than 500 meters deep, supplies the cities of Tripoli, Benghazi, Sirte and others, supplying 6,500,000 m³ drinking water per day. Muammar Gaddafi called this river the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” In 2008, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized the Great Man-Made River as the largest irrigation project in the world.
September 1, 2010 is the anniversary of the opening of the main section of the Great Libyan artificial river. The world media kept quiet about this Libyan project, but by the way, this project surpasses the largest construction projects. Its value is 25 billion US dollars.
Back in the 80s, Gaddafi began a large-scale project to create a network of water resources, which was supposed to cover Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Chad. TO today this project was almost completed. The task was, it must be said, historical for the entire North African region, because the problem of water has been relevant here since the times of Phenicia. And, more importantly, for a project that could transform the entire North Africa V blooming garden, not a single cent from the IMF was spent. It is with the latter fact that some analysts associate the current destabilization of the situation in the region.
The desire for a global monopoly on water resources is already now the most important factor world politics. And in the south of Libya there are four giant water reservoirs (the oases of Kufra, Sirt, Morzuk and Hamada). According to some data, they contain an average of 35,000 cubic meters. kilometers (!) of water. To imagine this volume, it is enough to imagine the entire territory of Germany huge lake 100 meters deep. Such water resources are undoubtedly of particular interest. And perhaps he has more than an interest in Libyan oil.
This water project was called the “Eighth Wonder of the World” due to its scale. It provides a daily flow of 6.5 million cubic meters water through the desert, greatly increasing the area of irrigated land. 4 thousand kilometers of pipes buried deep into the ground due to the heat. Underground water is pumped through 270 shafts from hundreds of meters deep. Cubic meter pure water from Libyan reservoirs, taking into account all costs, can cost 35 cents. This approximate cost cubic meters cold water in Moscow. If we take the cost of a European cubic meter (about 2 euros), then the value of water reserves in Libyan reservoirs is 58 billion euros.
The idea of extracting water hidden deep under the surface of the Sahara Desert appeared back in 1983. In Libya, like its Egyptian neighbor, only 4 percent of the territory is suitable for human life; the remaining 96 percent is dominated by sand. Once upon a time, on the territory of modern Jamahiriya there were riverbeds that flowed into the Mediterranean Sea. These riverbeds dried up long ago, but scientists were able to establish that at a depth of 500 meters underground there are huge reserves - up to 12 thousand cubic km of fresh water. Its age exceeds 8.5 thousand years, and it makes up the lion's share of all sources in the country, leaving a paltry 2.3% for surface water and a little more than 1 percent for desalinated water. Simple calculations showed that the creation of a hydraulic system that would allow pumping water from Southern Europe would give Libya 0.74 cubic meters of water per Libyan dinar. Delivery life-giving moisture by sea will bring benefits of up to 1.05 cubic meters per dinar. Desalination, which also requires powerful, expensive installations, is losing significantly, and only the development of the “Great Man-Made River” will make it possible to obtain nine cubic meters from each dinar. The project is still far from complete completion - at present time goes by implementation of the second phase, which involves laying the third and fourth stages of pipelines hundreds of kilometers inland and installing hundreds of deep-water wells. A total of 1,149 such wells were planned, including more than 400 that still had to be built. Over the past years, 1,926 km of pipes have been laid, with another 1,732 km ahead. Each 7.5 meter steel pipe reaches a diameter of four meters and weighs up to 83 tons, and in total there are more than 530.5 thousand such pipes. The total cost of the project is $25 billion. As the minister told reporters agriculture Libya Abdel Majid al-Matrouh, the bulk of the extracted water - 70% - goes to the needs of agriculture, 28% - to the population, the rest goes to industry.
One of the biggest civic development projects of former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year reign was the Great Artificial River. Gaddafi dreamed of providing fresh water to all residents of the country and turning the desert into a thriving oasis, providing Libya with its own food. To make this dream a reality, Gaddafi launched a major technical project consisting of a network of underground pipes. They were supposed to carry fresh water from ancient underground aquifers deep in the Sahara to the arid Libyan cities. Gaddafi called it the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” Western media rarely mentions it, calling it a “vanity project,” “Gaddafi’s Pet Project,” and “a mad dog’s pipe dream.” But in fact, the Artificial River of Life is a fantastic water delivery system that has changed the lives of Libyans all across the country.
Libya is one of the sunniest and driest countries in the world. There are places where no precipitation has fallen for decades, and even in mountainous areas, rain can fall once every 5 to 10 years. Less than 5% of the country receives sufficient rainfall for agriculture. Much of Libya's water supply used to come from desalination plants on the coast, which were expensive and used only locally. There was practically nothing left for irrigation of farmland. 
In 1953, during exploration of new oil fields in southern Libya, it was discovered huge amount ancient aquifers. The team of researchers discovered four huge pools with estimated volumes ranging from 4,800 to 20,000 cubic kilometers of water. Most of this water was collected between 38,000 and 14,000 years ago, before the end of the last ice age, when the Sahara region had a temperate climate. 
After Gaddafi seized power in a bloodless coup in 1969, the new government immediately nationalized oil companies and began using oil revenues to drill hundreds of wells to extract water from desert aquifers. Initially, Gaddafi planned to set up large-scale agricultural projects right in the desert, next to water sources. But people refused to move far from their homes, and then he decided to bring water directly to them. 
In August 1984, a pipe manufacturing plant was opened and the Great Artificial River of Life project in Libya began. Approximately 1,300 wells, 500 meters deep, were dug into the desert soil to pump water from the underground water reserve. This water was then distributed to 6.5 million people in the cities of Tripoli, Benghazi, Sirte and other places through a network of underground pipes totaling 2,800 km. When the fifth and final phase of the project is completed, the network will consist of 4,000 km of pipes that will cover 155,000 hectares of land. Even with the last two phases unfinished, the Great Artificial River is the largest irrigation project in the world. 
The pipeline first reached Tripoli in 1996, at the completion of the first phase of the project. Adam Kuwairi (the main figure of the project) vividly remembers the influence that fresh water affected him and his family. "Water has changed lives. For the first time in our history there is water for showering, washing and shaving," he told the BBC. “The quality of life has increased by an order of magnitude throughout the country.” The project was recognized at international level, and in 1999 UNESCO awarded the River of Life Prize, recognizing the remarkable work in scientific research on water use in dry areas. 
In July 2011, NATO struck a pipeline near Brega, including a pipe factory. They claimed that the factory was used as a military depot and that missiles were launched from there. The pipeline strike deprived 70% of the country's population of water. The country has erupted civil war, and the future of the Artificial River of Life project is in jeopardy.
artificial river
Alternative descriptionsAn artificial channel filled with water, arranged in the ground for a navigable connection between individual bodies of water, as well as for water supply, irrigation, and drainage of swamps
Narrow passage for ships in a bay, strait, or in ice
A narrow, long hollow space inside something, usually in the form of a pipe or tube
Separate TV and radio broadcasting line
An organ or a set of such organs in the shape of a pipe or tube through which certain substances pass (in the human body, animal body)
The path of passage of any signals to organs, devices
Communication line
water road
Path, method, means of achieving, implementing, distributing something
In Asia, the synonym is aryk
In cybernetics - a set of devices designed to transmit information
Venetiansky passage
Internal cavity of the barrel
Hydraulic structure
An artificial channel (water conduit) with free-flowing water movement, usually located in the ground
Film by Polish film director Andrzej Wajda
A narrow, long hollow space inside something
TV show receptacle
. “I was built by machines, I can shorten the path even from drought, like a warrior, a forest and a field on the shore” (riddle)
Film by Bernardo Bertolucci
An artificially created reservoir named after Moscow
Road for the gondolier
Painting by French painter Alfred Sisley
. "channel" of communication
. "street" of Venice
Man-made river
A man-made river, usually connecting two non-man-made rivers
Television cell
Television division
Belomor-...
Venice "track"
Suez...
Any device for transmitting information
Artificial channel filled with water
Panamanian or Suez
White Sea-Baltic...
Divides Panama into parts
Suez via Egypt
Divides Panama
Water street of Venice
Suez or NTV
. "highway" for gondola
Venice "street"
. "channel" called NTV or ORT
VolgoBalt
Communication line
Groove in the barrel of a weapon
. "channel" for the flow of information
Panamanian...
What you switch with the TV remote control
Venice "street"
. gondolier track
What we switch with the TV remote control
Electromagnetic waveguide
TV line
Diplomatic line of communication
Volgo-Baltic...
The volcano's mouth and the "street" of Venice
. gondolier's "road"
Television "channel"
Irrigation River
Habitat of the dental nerve
Panama divided
The ditch is essentially
. "river" for irrigation
. "river" between the Americas
. "river" connecting rivers
Venetian Avenue
Trench for water flow
Irrigation...
Artificial riverbed
A set of devices designed to transmit information
