International Project Management Day: five projects you need to know about

You may have been too busy running your own projects to remember, but today is International Project Management Day. What better opportunity to stop the rollercoaster for a moment and reflect on what else is going on out there in the world of ‘making things happen’?

Whether they’re ingenious and inspiring, or bloated and baffling, other projects can be fascinating to consider, giving us ideas for improvement and helping us make better decisions.

Here are five projects around the world that should be on your radar…

South-to-North Water Diversion Project, China

Mao Zedong summarised China’s water distribution problem back in the 1950s. “There is more water in the south and less water in the north,” he said, before nodding to the solution. “If possible, it is OK to borrow a little.”

In 2002, construction finally began on the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, an ambitious plan to transfer 12 trillion gallons of water from the Yangtze River basin in the south of China to the drier Yellow River basin in the north.

The work is being completed in phases. In its first decade of operation, launched in 2013, the initial phase benefitted more than 68 million people in the eastern province of Shandong, moving 6.14 billion cubic metres of water 1,467km.

The project has cost over £65bn so far. There have been social costs too. An estimated 330,000 people were relocated for the expansion of the Danjiangkou reservoir alone.

Nasa Artemis

Nasa’s on a mission to put bootprints on the moon again, for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. The plan is to establish a sustainable presence on the moon as a stepping stone for missions to Mars.

Nasa describes Artemis III as “of the most complex undertakings of engineering and human ingenuity in the history of deep space exploration”.

The 30-day mission, for which the space agency is working with private partners like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, will be the first to put a woman and a person of colour on the moon. The astronauts will also be the first to explore the lunar South Pole.

The Artemis III launch keeps getting pushed back and is now slated for September 2026 at the earliest. You can forgive the erratic countdown: Nasa’s challenge reaches beyond landing on a floating rock 384,000 miles away. It’s also battling the very down-to-earth problem of supply chain disruption.

Khavda Solar Park, India

Deep in the salt desert of Gujarat, India, work is under way on the world’s largest renewable energy park. Spanning over 280 square miles, the finished site will be about the same size as Singapore and visible from space.

Developer Adani Green Energy plans to produce 30GW of clean energy at Khavda to power 16.1 million homes and prevent 58 million tonnes of CO₂ entering the atmosphere every year.

Construction began in 2022. Thousands of labourers now live in camps in the sun-baked region, which receives around 2,060 kWh/m² of high solar irradiation. It’s an unforgiving terrain, where heavy rain, high winds and marshland make work incredibly hard-going.

The project is full of neat ideas, like using waterless robotic cleaning to remove the dust from the solar panels, without wasting precious resources. But conservationists have criticised its impact on resident wildlife – including flamingos, desert foxes and migratory birds.

Hinkley Point C

Somerset’s Hinkley Point C is a project to address a looming shortfall in the UK’s energy supply. Nuclear currently powers almost 20% of the national grid. But almost all the country’s reactors are set to begin decommissioning by the end of 2030. Hinkley’s twin reactors will provide 7% of the UK’s electricity needs for the next 60 years.

Now the biggest construction site in Europe (and home to Big Carl, the world’s largest land-based crane), Hinkley Point C has endured complications that would spark a meltdown in most project managers: the COVID-19 pandemic, labour and material shortages, inflation, Brexit and strict regulations.

Observers have flagged the complexity of its civil engineering – including the technical expertise required and the number of multinational production sites involved. Hinkley’s first reactor is now not expected online until 2029 or 2030, and even its cost has gone nuclear: some put it as high as £48bn.

Neom

The futuristic mega region being built on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast will host business and residential areas, leisure complexes and beaches. Plus its mind-bending The Line – a 200m wide mirrored “cognitive city” that’s set to stretch for 100 miles. The plan is to house nine million people in its 34km² footprint.

Neom is part of Saudi’s Vision 2030 project to reduce the economy’s reliance on oil.

It has been hailed as a showcase for cutting-edge technology and carbon-neutral development – claims somewhat overshadowed by evidence of forced evictions and the exploitation of migrant workers. A recent ITV documentary, Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia, alleged that more than 21,000 have died during construction.

Then there’s the eye-watering project budget. Some forecast the cost will hit £1 trillion.