How Libya Built a $25 Billion River Under the Sahara (And What Broke It)

In April 2020, more than 2 million people in Tripoli turned on their taps — and nothing came out. Not because of a drought, but because an armed group had shut a single control station deep in the desert. The water they drink comes from under the Sahara: the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer, one of the largest fossil water systems on Earth, holding around 150,000 cubic kilometres of water that fell as rain tens of thousands of years ago, when the Sahara was green. In 1984, Muammar Gaddafi began building the Great Man-Made River to carry that water to the coast: more than 1,300 wells, pipes 4 metres wide, over 2,800 km of buried pipeline, paid for with Libya's own oil money. This is the story of how it was built, how war nearly broke it, and why the water it carries will never come back. CHAPTERS 0:00 The river someone switched off 1:07 A country with no rivers 2:08 Gaddafi's bet 2:59 1953: water instead of oil 3:52 The Cave of Swimmers and the green Sahara 5:15 Kufra: taking farms to the water 6:54 1984: building the impossible 9:24 Who paid for it 10:05 1991: the water arrives 11:26 The pipes start bursting 12:28 Fossil water: a battery with no charger 14:00 2011: war reaches the river 15:05 Who keeps it running 15:31 2020: water as a weapon 16:18 The last chapter Subscribe to Chrono Mirage for documentaries about monumental ambition — and what it costs.