The Great Man-Rade River

The 1990s were a bad decade from Mo Mar Gaddafi's regime. Libya spent most of that time under a strangling set of international sanctions. Qaddafi also had to fight off an Islamist uprising that threatened to topple his regime. The Great Man made river scheme took up 15% of the government's budget during the years it was under construction. It currently provides something like 70% of Libya's fresh water and supports a huge amount of their agriculture.