The Great Man-Made River Project

The Libyan Great Man-Made River Project (GMRP) is a US$20B, 4000 kilometre prestressed concrete cylinder pipeline project incorporating well fields, pump stations, water treatment facilities and storage reservoirs designed to deliver over 6.5 million tonnes (1.7 billion US gallons) of water daily to the agricultural, industrial and municipal areas of Libya. Although briefly described below, it is not the purpose of this paper to dwell on the details of the project's conception, design and implementation nor on the awesome statistics of its size and cost since these have been extensively, though by no means exhaustively, reported elsewhere. This paper looks at the broad strategic decisions underpinning the management framework intended to deliver the completed Project in a planned and orderly manner. Reference is also made to some of the unforeseen events that challenged the planned order and describes how management was able to meet and deal with them. It is the Owner who will live with and depend on the project for generations to come. This paper therefore examines the project management system seen from the Owner's perspective and its ability to meet his needs and objectives. The absolute importance of an effective management system to the success of a project is recognised as are the constraints and limitations of any system. The authors identify the key management processes and their adaptation to the GMR Project while recognising that there is no uniquely appropriate management system for any given project, nor one that performs independently of the people involved in it.