Most every American has heard about the Los Angeles River, a concrete-covered channel that often has little or no water. That changed this year as the state of California had to divert a lot of runoff from massive rain and snowfall. Even so, the L.A. River isn't technically a
man-made river. It was always there, but they decided to turn it into a concrete-sealed channel to control flow and erosion (or so I understand).
True man-made rivers are channels that flow from places where nature hasn't driven any water for a long, long time. I'm not sure what the technical difference is between a
canal and a
man-made river, but apparently there is at least some kind of distinction between them.
I recently came across two interesting videos that describe man-made river projects in Africa. The first was built by Mouamar Khadafi in Libya, starting in the 1980s. His government decided to tap massive, ancient underground reservoirs/aquifers they discovered under the Sahara desert when they were drilling for oil. The Libyan government estimated there is enough water there to meet Libya's needs for thousands of years (about 40,000 cubic kilometers of water). Scientists outside of Libya questioned that estimate, and pointed out that simply draining these aquifers isn't a sustainable solution.
Still, 3 of 4 or 5 phases were built before the Khadafi government was brought down in 2011. And, unfortunately, the warring factions in Libya have used the water resources as strategic resources instead of helping to maintain them.
Here is the video from the YouTube channel Engineeringness that describes the Libyan man-made river system. It's just over 9 minutes long.
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Water engineering isn't new to North Africa (or the Middle East). We know that several cultures/civilizations from Morocco to Iran relied upon underground water sources, sometimes building underground viaducts or channels to carry water over great distances to their cities. One culture in the Algeria/Tunisia/Libya coastal area survived for hundreds of years until their underground river dried up.
Modern Egypt began a massive project in 2006 that should be more sustainable. They are building a huge man-made river/canal system that will greenify up to 12,000 square kilometers of desert by 2030. Although the system will be connected to the Nile river, those connections will only be used for flood control. The main source of water for this system will be 3 reclamation plants that treat wastewater from Egyptian cities.
This video is just under 10 minutes long.
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According to the video, the entire project will cost less than $6,000,000,000 (a fraction of what it would cost to build a similar project in the United States). Egypt has much less expensive labor and plenty of raw materials to work with.
See Also:
Video: How China Fights Desertification by Planting Trees
Video: Texas is running out of water
Video: The Colorado River is drying up
Video: Utah's Great Salt Lake is Drying Up
Solving the Water Problem the Wrong Way?