Lemna's African Adventures

The Libyan Plan

During most of the last 50 years, Libya’s relations with Western countries have been strained, making it inhospitable to businesses, particularly American ones. The United Nations placed economic sanctions on Libya in 1992 as a penalty for harboring terrorists connected to the 1986 Pan Am airplane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. The country also was accused of operating nuclear- and chemical-weapons programs.

But during the past 10 years, Libya has taken steps to normalize relations with the United States and the West. In September 2003, the UN lifted sanctions on the African nation; in June 2006, the U.S. removed Libya from its “state sponsors of terrorism” list. Libya is now open for business. Still, companies aren’t exactly clamoring to invest there.

But Ngo, undeterred by the country’s history, hopes to take advantage of its potential. Lemna has begun construction on two training centers for civil servants in Libya. These smaller projects will help to build trust and win people over. “You have to slowly prove to them that you’re reliable, you’re there, you’re not just a flash in the pan,” Ngo says.

Libya’s president, Muammar al-Qadhafi, began funding massive infrastructure programs in the 1980s with the country’s oil money. One such project is pumping fresh water from aquifers beneath the Sahara Desert and piping it hundreds of miles to Libya’s coastal cities, where outdated water desalination plants typically supply drinking water. Dubbed the Great Man-Made River and costing almost $20 billion to date to construct, the project uses 2,485 miles of concrete cylinder pipe to irrigate farmland and supply water to many of Libya’s 6 million citizens.

Ngo wants Lemna’s proposed housing project, which will be located near the Libyan capital of Tripoli, to pay homage to the Great Man-Made River with a river of its own that will draw seawater from the Mediterranean. The water will flow through a series of canals interwoven throughout the development.

In the middle of the project will be what Ngo calls the Lemna Ecocenter. It’s a new concept where all utility services will be located in one place where wastewater can be filtered and reused, drinking water stored, and power generated using natural gas. In addition, the Ecocenter will have its own telecommunication and Internet facility.

The designs for Lemna’s Libya housing development have curving streets and ample vegetation that create a serene atmosphere, with features such as arched doorways, minarets, mosaics, and the kind of tile use found in Arabian architecture.

“We have to respect their customers,” Ngo says of Libya’s mostly Muslim population. “The men have their own prayer rooms, the women have different quarters.” The single and multifamily homes will merge Eastern and Western design elements.

“I feel that it is the duty of those doing public works that they should be trying to inject some beauty, some pleasantness, some respite [into these projects],” Ngo says. “Those little gestures mean a lot. If you had enough like that, you could create an environment in which people feel better.”

Ngo first brought the idea for the project to Libyan officials in 2006. The country is in need of new housing stock and water treatment facilities—especially on the Mediterranean coast, where most of the population is concentrated.