Libya is a country that bears a ratherominous distinction, having achieved thehottest recorded temperature in the historyof the world – 136ºF. One of the driestregions of the world, with an annual rain-fall ranging from just 10-500mm, a merefive per cent of the entire area of Libyaexceeds 100mm rainfall annually. Andevaporation rates are also so high, rangingfrom 1,700mm in the north to 6,000mmin the south, that the country’s desert hasremained agriculturally useless since time immemorial.

As a result of the region’s completeabsence of permanent rivers or streams,and because the only 20 or so perenniallakes were brackish or salty, good qualityfreshwater was a highly coveted resource,and one in scarce supply. It was these relent-

less conditions and potential for a watercrisis, and the discovery of large quantities of freshwater underground in the early1960s, that led to the conception of theGreat Man Made River Project (GMRP).Today, still being expanded, the project isthe largest underground network of pipesand aqueducts in the world. It consists ofmore than 1,300 wells, mostly 500 metresdeep, and supplies 6,500,000 cubic metresof freshwater per day to the cities of Tripoli,Benghazi, Sirte and elsewhere. The extraor-dinary nature of the project led it to bedescribed as the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’.

Since the inception of ANC in May 1993,a 75:25 joint venture between Water WorksLtd (a body corporate controlled by theGreat Man-made River Authority) andWater Pipeline Works Limited (a bodycorporate controlled by The Korea ExpressCompany Ltd) has been a key player inLibya’s colossal Great Man-Made RiverProject, first manufacturing the Pre-stressed Concrete Cylinder pipes (PCCP),and then expanding into their transportation,installation and construction, becoming theprojects major contractor. In recent years,ANC, whose major customer remains theGreat Man-Made River Authority (GMRA),has diversified into civil construction andother infrastructure projects including roadsand buildings. ‡

162 EUROASIA INDUSTRY

REALISING THE EIGHTHWONDER OF THE WORLDSince 1984, an enormous undertaking to supply Libya’s needs, by drawing water from aquifersand conveying it along a network of huge underground pipes, has been taking place beneaththe Sahara. Over the past 17 years, Al Nahr Co. Ltd for Pipe Manufacturing & Construction(ANC) has been a lynchpin of the colossal Great Man-made River project – the largestunderground network of pipes and aqueducts in the world. Eng. Abdulhakim Taher El Shwehdi,Managing Director of ANC, tells Sarah Pursey about some of the company’s extraordinaryundertakings thus far, and its role in alleviating Libya’s impending water crisis, as well as plansfor expanding further into infrastructure, building and road construction activities.

164 EUROASIA INDUSTRY

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EUROASIA INDUSTRY 167

in the deep desert. Located on the Gulf of Sirte, the most southerly point of theMediterranean Sea, Brega PipeManufacturing Plant would produce theenormous pre-stressed concrete cylinderpipes for the project – Muammar AlGaddafi inaugurated the plant on 28thAugust 1986 for the production of some ofthe world’s largest pipes ever manufacturedfrom pre-stressed steel wire.

The groundbreaking river project itself,estimated to represent an investment inexcess of US$25 billion, is owned by theGreat Man-Made River Authority (GMRA)and funded by the Libyans through taxes oncommodities like fuel, cigarettes, air ticketsand foreign currency transfer transactions.Brown & Root (now owned by Halliburton)and Price Brothers were responsible for theoriginal design, and the primary contractorfor the first phases was Korean construc-

tion company Dong Ah Consortium.However, the main contractor of theproject later became Al Nahr Co. Ltd forPipe Manufacturing & Construction (ANC)– a company established and incorporatedin the British Virgin Islands on 19th May1993, with the objective of undertakingengineering, construction, operation andmaintenance of civil, mechanical and elec-trical works, transportation stevedoring,camp operation and other related services.“ANC actually started life as a joint venturebetween the two companies involved in theGreat Man Made River Project at the time– one established by the GMRA and by theKorean contractor Dong Ah by virtue of a JVagreement signed on 17th April 1993 underthe old name for ANC. Dong Ah MiddleEast Limited,” reports Eng. Shwehdi.

Pipe manufacturing, as the first activityin which the company was involved, com-

menced operations in 1994, at the giganticpipe plant in Brega, which today producespre-stressed concrete cylinder pipes indimensions ranging from 1,600-4,000mmdiameter. “From there, the company mergedand we started working on the other activ-‡

ANC headquarters are located in QasrBinghashir, 20km from Tripoli, with its man-ufacturing plant and controlling officeslocated in Brega, where Pre-stressedConcrete Cylinder Pipes ranging from1600mm – 4000mm diameter (maximumpressure 26 bar) are manufactured. Thecompany has a second base in Benghazi,registered in May 1994, where the companyis expanding with major upcoming business.Like the GMRP that it has been such anintegral part of over the years, ANC hasachieved a truly colossal rate of growth,with annual turnover having increasedfrom LD2.632m (US$2.11m) in 1998 toLD520.065m or (US$415.216m) in 2009.

A great man-made featIt was 1953 when the efforts to find oil insouthern Libya led to the discovery of hugequantities of fresh water underground.Following the remarkable discovery, theGMRP was conceived on 3rd October 1983when the GMRA was created with theresponsibility of taking water from theaquifers in the south and conveying it bythe most economical way for use predom-inantly for irrigation in the Libyan coastalbelt. The ambition of the authorities behindthe mega development was for the gargan-tuan work of underground pipes, wells andpumping stations to one day make thedesert bloom, from Tripoli to Kufra

168 EUROASIA INDUSTRY

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AKIN PLAST�K BORU SAN A.AKIN Plastic was established in Turkey in 1977 from Turkey in the city of Kayseri. AKIN Plasticnow produces a wide range of infrastructure (underground construction) products: hightdensity PE distribution pipes, PE naturalgas pipes, Koruge blare and additional components,HDPE cable screen pipes, PVC-U pressurized clean water pipes (portable water) and HDPEsewage pipes.

The company also produces superstructure products: PPRC type-three installation pipesand fittings, PEX flour heating pipes, PVC-U sewage pipes. And agricultural products:deep well pipes, PE and PVC sprinkling pipes, and PE drip irrigation pipes.

Today AKIN Plastic has a land area of more than 300,000 square metres, including a 100,000 square metre factory facility producing high quality piping products.

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ities related to pre-stressed concrete pipe,like pipe laying and pipe transportation andso on – eventually moving into massiveexcavation suitable for 4000mm diameterPCCP and their installation.”

The Ghadames Project Phase IVMeanwhile, the actual execution of theGreat Man-Made River Project’s construc-tion was divided into five logically separatephases, with the first requiring 85 millioncubic metres of excavation. The first phaseof the project was commissioned in 1990,and completed in November 1994. The

system is able to supply 2,000,000m3 ofwater per day to the coastal area betweenBenghazi East and Sirte West. The secondphase, dubbed ‘the First Water to Tripoli’,was inaugurated on 1st September 1996and completed in 2000. It brings 2.5 mil-lion tonnes of water to Tripoli and the NorthWest part of the country. The third phasewill increase water flow in the Phase I systemby 1,680,000m3/day of water through apipeline to Tobruk. Phase V will connectPhase I and Phase II and install two pumpstations to pump the 1,000,000m3/day of water.

ANC was awarded in an internationalbid for Phase IV of GMRP, known as‘Ghadames-Zwara-Azzawiyah WaterSystem Project’ (or simply ‘GhadamesProject’) on 28th August 2004 and its cur-rent value stands at US$960m. “So, webecame the main contractor for GMRA,responsible for the completion of the futurestages of the project and for the utilisationof the water and its distribution into majorcities.” Unsurprisingly, Eng. Shwehdi high-lights the Ghadames project – located in thefar west part of Libya, stretching from thesouth to north of the Jamahiriya – as one of ‡

on the type of project. This is the nature ofthe construction business; of course, youwork with a lot of different organisationsand suppliers, and technology producers.”Associated consultants include ILFConsulting Engineers Austria, HalcrowInternational UAE, Price Brothers (UK)Ltd and TMA Turkey, while internationalsuppliers of equipment and technologyinclude SIEMENS and WABAG.

Premier pipesToday, pipe manufacturing remains a uniqueand integral part of Al Nahr’s operations,and accounts for 20 percent of the business.“We still produce pipes and we have twoprojects in hand at the moment – contractsvalued at about US$350 million, which willbe executed in about four years time,” Eng.Shwehdi informs. “Hopefully, we will con-

tinue with this as we have learned a lot fromthis manufacturing and it actually acts asa gateway for other construction activities– for example, the pipe-laying process isan important one that utilises very heavy,specialist equipment such as huge cranesand excavators, of which we have numerous,and good experience in.”

For the pipe manufacturing, outputobviously depends upon pipe dimensions.“Our capacity can range from 40 pieces of4,000mm diameter and 7.5m long pipe, toabout 80 pieces when we go to the smallerdiameter of 1,600mm,” he tells us. “Themajority of pipe manufacturing contractsare accompanied by transportation andinstallation of the pipes. On some occa-sions, a company that does constructionmight just require the pipes on a supplybasis only – some local contractors and‡

170 EUROASIA INDUSTRY

the major historical milestones in the com-pany’s evolution. “By that point, other areasin the country had largely been supplied bywater from Great Man-Made River for sometime – all except this far-West part of thecountry. That’s why the project was devel-oped.” The Ghadames Project conveysabout 90 million cubic metres per year, producing 106 productive wells inGhadames well field, where water is conveyed to coastal cities in West Jeffaraand populated areas in the west, to coverthe actual need of potable water via PCCP(pre-cast concrete cylinder pipes) of1,600mm diameter – the length of thesystem conveyance line being 621km, inaddition to 181km branch lines in wellfields. Water is conveyed by three mainpump stations and a sub-station pump.

The second stage of the project was theconstruction of three reservoirs for eachpump station, with a capacity of 20,000cubic metres, a regulating reservoir inJawaibiyah with a capacity of 70,000 cubicmetres and water treatment plant, in addi-tion to a water flow control station with acapacity of 70,000 cubic metres in Nalutand pressure regulating station in Azrair,as well as the construction of four OS&M(Operations Support & Maintenance) facili-ties. “That second part was completed lastyear – more than 28 communities now havewater available for use,” Eng. Shwehdi pointsout. “This project was a really great step forus – we have experienced incredible growthsince that time and can handle much largerprojects as a result,” he remarks. “We cannow compete with much larger companies

here in Libya, so that project really didchange the course of our company for the better.”

Even today, the company remains a jointventure – its two shareholders being WaterWorks Limited and Water Pipeline WorksLimited, as mentioned earlier, in a ratio of75-25 percent respectively, and with a totalpaid up capital of US$100,000,000. As anintegral part of often huge projects such asthe GMRP, Al Nahr Company naturallyenjoys a great deal of collaboration due toits diversified expertise and successfulcompletion of various projects, as Eng.Shwehdi points out. “As far as engineeringgoes, we do a lot of engineering in-house,but when it comes to high-tech engineering,we have collaboration with a lot of majorfirms in the engineering world – it depends

EUROASIA INDUSTRY 175

present capacity of the Great Man-madeRiver is about four million cubic metres perday, although the authorities want to intro-duce a big aquifer into the system – KufraAquifer. This aquifer is probably the largestin the world, and is located in the far south-east part of the country. The intention nowis to develop a well-field there to supplywater to the existing GMRP system, toadd an additional 1.6 million cubic metresto the existing four million cubic metres ofwater per day capacity. To do this, we areconstructing three huge pump stations, to pump water north. We were competingagainst some very big, well-known compa-nies, so were really proud to have won thiscontract. It’s a five year project and westarted the construction stage in October2009, so we still have quite a long way togo, although we are certainly on track.”

Other major projects include an irriga-tion scheme for an area of about 600,000hectares (utilising GMRP water) valued atbetween US$300-340 million. “This projectis based in the area south of Tripoli – the

coastal strip – where most agriculturalactivities in the country take place. So, thegovernment is making an effort to supportthis area with the provision of more water.– We’re taking about 10,000km of irrigationpipes, to connect to GMRP to irrigate thisarea, which produces about 70 percent ofLibya’s agricultural production,” informsEng. Shwehdi.

The coastal area project is divided into nine areas and Al Nahr Company has commenced construction in the firstthree areas already. The company expectsto finish areas 1, 2 and 3 of the projectsoon, and, at the time of writing, was set to commence work on the next threeareas at the start of 2011, with each set ofthree taking approximately 24 months tocomplete. It’s a major project, says Eng.Shwehdi, and one that is not without itshurdles. “We are actually irrigating anexisting and well-established area of agri-cultural land – so there are a lot of chal-lenges in terms of the disruption of thesefarming activities, but we are confident

that the outcome will be a very positiveone to the area,” he tells us.

In addition, ANC is involved in a numberof smaller agricultural (irrigation) schemes,along with some building construction work,with around 16 ongoing projects in total.

Well-equipped for the jobToday, although Al Nahr Company hasexpanded from its initial client base, thegovernment-owned Great Man-Made RiverAuthority remains a major client, accountingfor 60 percent of the company’s contractsvalue today. “We also work with some othergovernment municipal authorities as wellas the agricultural development authorities,”points out Eng. Shwehdi.

The company has unarguably experi-enced a colossal rate of growth over thepast decade or so, increasing its turnoverfrom US$2.11m in 1998 to US$417.10min 2009. Eng. Shwehdi puts this successdown largely to the expertise inheritedfrom the old company owned by Al Nahr’spartner as a joint operation of ANC, and ‡

other contractors working with the GMRA,for example”.

Of course, the large diameter pipes weighabout 70-80 tonnes, so handling (loading,transporting and laying) such pipes is a specialist task, as Eng. Shwehdi attests.“ANC owns a large fleet of trailers and trac-tors – we are presently operating a fleet of around 120, specifically designed andcustom built for the transportation of PCCPpipes. Other lifting equipment includeslarge loaders and 450 tonne capacity cranesused for pipe installation. And then, ofcourse, the excavation equipment requiredfor the installation of the pipe – trenches7-8 metres deep and 10 metres wide, soit’s a huge operation,” he remarks. “Andthen if you think about the distances that

we are doing – Ghadames is about 1,000kmfrom the manufacturing plant in Brega – somuch equipment is utilised in the trans-portation of these pipelines,” he tells us.“A German firm provides all of the tractorsand trailers used in the transportation oper-ation, while the large cranes are suppliedby either Amherst or Kobelco – majorglobal suppliers.” Furthermore, ANC has unique experience in partially ship-ping pipes through sea shipments fromBrega Port to Zwara Port.

Irrigation for the nationANC has recently commenced constructionwork on another huge project – three pumpstations with a project value of US$550million. Eng. Shwehdi reveals more. “The

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ects can be spread over 20 locations at anyone time and there is a lot of constructionwork, heavy lifting and transportation. Asa result, we have more than four percent ofour people working on safety right now –the way that we work, we must keep safetyas the primary concern,” he stresses.

An attractive marketLooking ahead, does Eng. Shwehdi see geo-graphical expansion as a possibility? “I thinkthat we are still looking at the market herein Libya – there is a lot of development hereat the moment.” Indeed, the market seemsto be flourishing, with Turkey alone set toinvest 35 billion euros in Libya’s infrastruc-ture over the next 10 years, and governmentspending is huge in terms of water resourcesfor domestic, agricultural and industrialsectors and for infrastructure projects.However, in terms of project type, thecompany is certainly looking to diversifyits offerings to the construction of housing,roads and other infrastructure besides itswater conveyance projects. “Historically,we have been involved in water systemsand hydraulic structures, but now we aretrying to develop our business as there is agreat deal of other infrastructure workavailable at the moment, and upcoming.We would therefore like to establish our-selves more in road and building projects.We don’t have many such projects on the

books at the moment, although we havesome such jobs in the past – not as big as our infrastructure projects, but as we become more equipped for such jobs, as we intend to do, this will open up a great deal more opportunities for us in this sector.”

At present, Al Nahr Company is biddingfor a huge sewage treatment plant project;it also recently won a pipeline constructionproject, and Eng. Shwehdi says that thecompany is very much still open to oppor-tunity. “We are presently executing in theregion of US$500 million per year, so we are very competitive here, we are a wellknown, committed construction company –and committed to our clients. Business inLibya is growing very well at the moment– the government is spending in the regionof 40 billion Libyan Dinars (US$31.96 bil-lion) on infrastructure projects here per year:a huge amount. So this is an opportunityfor ANC – perhaps there will come a timein the future where we will transfer ourexperience elsewhere,” concludes Eng.Shwehdi, “but the market is very attractivehere right now. In a nutshell, the proudLibyan people can claim that the GreatMan-Made River Project is not just thegreatest civil engineering work of thiscentury, but also the Eighth Wonder ofthe World, and is one to which ANC has contributed significantly.” o

178 EUROASIA INDUSTRY

the technology transfer that followed. “Welearnt a lot from the previous experienceof our partner. We inherited a lot of thingsfrom them – good quality control and safetysystems, which we implemented a long timeago and which is part of every contract’sobligation. So, we didn’t start from zero,and our growth was also very carefullystudied.” Now very well established,another major strong point has becomethe large number of assets that the companyhas created over the years. “If you have alot of assets, you can move at any time andwill have the tools and facilities to completethe projects on time. Assets and equipmentsare the backbone of ANC as well as itsengineering and administrative staff. Thisis very important – when we commit our-selves to a project, we do it with rapid pace.We are nearly always on time – we cancarry out fast-track projects for clients, ifrequired. We are available with our equip-ment, our workshops and our manpower,and this is why we are very competitivehere in Libya.”

With large irrigation projects lasting threeto four years, mobile camps become a must.“The construction work itself moves from

place to place, of course, but we havemaintained two workshops, in the West andthe East of the country – one near Tripoliand the other near Benghazi – where westock all of our equipment and spare partsand so on,” he tells us. “Of course, we areinterested in developing the facilities, assets,capacity and capabilities of the company– this is an ongoing process.”

With approximately 8,000 employees onits payroll, Al Nahr Company puts a greatdeal of time and effort into training anddevelopment of these valuable resources.“This has been the case since we startedout with the Brega pipe plant,” attests Eng.Shwehdi. “The pipe plant today has about1,780 workers and you get a high turnoverthere. The objective On-Job-Training aspectis therefore crucial – and this is why wedeveloped our training base actually atthe plant. We have a fully fledged trainingcentre furnished with state-of-the-art audio,video centres and computer labs, where wedo most of our specialised training. Wehave other programmes too – we sendindividuals overseas for training, as well asusing local training companies. In order tomaintain certain standards and a high level

of quality, this is vital. So, we continue tospend a lot on this as we see it as a worth-while investment,” he adds, of a companythat is Besting-accredited, as well as havingachieved ISO 9001:2000 quality manage-ment system across all areas of its opera-tions – from the manufacture of thepre-stressed concrete pipe to the trans-portation of pipes and fittings, projectmanagement, engineering, design anddevelopment, procurement, construction,construction management and services forcivil, architecture, mechanical, electricaland telecommunication works.

Safety is always a concern in heavyindustry such as that in which Al NahrCompany is involved, and Eng. Shwehdi iscognisant of the fact. “Of course, our proj-