Sudan’s Water Crisis Overview

Introduction

The water problem presents a critical issue in the society, which equally calls for immediate attention from relevant parties. Today, the society is faced with the challenge of reducing its consumption with the trend extending towards the energy consumption across the world. However, the most interesting country is Sudan which is faced with both arid and semi-arid conditions at the same time. Sudan has high climatic as well as ecological diversity that keeps ranging from no rain and desert to almost humid areas that are found in the south. The entire country has gentle slopes with exceptions of Jebet Marra, Nuba Mountains, Imatong, and Red Sea Hills. The annual rainfall of Sudan keeps ranging from less than 50mm, especially in the North, and around 350-800mm within the central region and the Savannah area receives more than 1500 mm. based on this preamble, the recommendation report presents the current situation in Sudan, comparison of the methods that have been used as part of the solution and the recommendable techniques that will sustain the available water in Sudan.

Assessment of the current situation

Sudan is substantially endowed with agricultural resources, which can support the country in terms of food production. However, the endless food security and household deficiency prevails in the country raising an alarm over the need of water. Some of the susceptible regions to water problems include West Darfur, North Darfur, North Kordofan states, and Red Sea (Lasage and Verburg 2015). Notably, food insecurity is essentially derived from poverty as well as the vagary of low rainfall in the country that has been aggravated by population movements as well as displacements that occur from time to time due to civil unrest even after splitting into two nations; the north and south. This indicates that Sudan, as a country, has been suffering from limited water resource, which is the prime factor that hampers the economic development in the region. Most of the non-Nile areas have suffered from persistent water shortages making the access rate settle at 55%. Another challenge revolves around the ratio of allocation for each sector (Tirab and Chimonyo 2016). At the moment, 90% of water is used for agricultural purposes with only 3% being served as drinking water. Besides, water shortages in Sudan has been due to the improvement activities being done on the water resources such as dam operation, which makes the possibility of accessing water only after the project is completed.

With over six major enterprise zones, the discussion narrows down to Desert and the semi-arid zones. Within the desert zone, the practice of agricultural produce is evident along the banks of Atbara River and River Nile. Irrigation is enabled through the canals that are directed towards the agricultural schemes, privately owned farms and fruit trees among others (Reitano 2011). Therefore, irrigation purely depends on the diversions form the Nile especially during the flooding periods. This means that the only way the population can access drinking water is by setting up a water treatment plant. The semi-arid zone practices rain-fed cultivation characterized by traditional farming. Zones with high clay content make it possible for the population to go for water harvesting, which is a practice embraced by the population. Water harvesting in Sudan makes it possible to channel water from the dams before it is pumped to the fields. The practice has seen the country growing cotton, sugar cane, fodder crops, wheat, and vegetable at the same time. However, spate irrigation is still evident in the region with such places like Abu Habil, North Kordofan, Red Sea, Gash, and Baraka make use of the seasonal rivers (Lasage and Verburg 2015). Such overdependence on the seasonal rivers has made water provision a key area of concern that needs attention from both the government and the interested partners from across the world.

Discussion of possible solution

From the assessment, the arid and semi-arid areas in Sudan seem to be faced with water shortages from time to time. The trend, however, can be addressed through key methods that can increase water provision in the country. While the country enjoys only 3% drinking water from the available water resources, the country has shown a gap in terms of the water supply. It is of note that the key solution lies with water harvesting practices that add to the currently available water resources. In such zones like North Darfur, the rainfall is experienced for short periods of time with the quantity decreasing as time goes by (Szyplinska 2012). The development of water harvesting methods, however, is a new relief to a country that has been suffering from water shortages. The first method, which is also a solution to water shortage, is floodwater harvesting as a result of the constructed dams designed to tap significant volumes of water. The second solution lies with the contour systems, which are also gaining attention of the country at the moment.

As much as floodwater harvesting and contour system stand out as the key solution to water shortages in Sudan, they still bear similarities and differences at the same time. The two methods both have a catchment that is essentially kept smooth as well as vegetation free. Sometimes, the vegetation cover is applied for soil conservation. Secondly, the slope for water harvesting is never recommended to go beyond 5% because of the possibilities of uneven distribution of the run off and impediment to large earthworks. However, floodwater harvesting is mainly characterized by check dams which are located in a stream flowing through a narrow valley. The dam slows the water paving way for percolation while recharging the aquifers (Tirab and Chimonyo 2016). The dams may range in terms of length from around 50m to 1000m. Costs are normally proportional to the length of the dam and its height as well. In terms of the layout, dams, in floodwater harvesting, are always constructed in a series to ensure stabilized throughput. Different from floodwater harvesting, the contour systems are mainly utilized in slowing down the movement of a runoff thereby enabling water to be utilized for the longest period of time. It commonly makes use of the negarim micro catchment with the land split into what is referred to as diamonds (Oweis 2018). The runoff is collected in the catchment area and stored inside the pit. The catchment areas always range from 10-100 square metres. Despite the differences, the methods are more convenient in that they can be practiced for either commercial use or for domestic benefits.

Conclusion and recommendation

The recommendation report presents a scenario of water shortage in Sudan, a country that has both the semi-arid and arid zones. The trend of water shortages raises an alarm on water provision to the increasing population. The report takes note of water harvesting as the most affordable and manageable way of substituting water channelled from rivers. This idea is accompanied by two more techniques that include contour systems and floodwater harvesting. The two have their own similarities and differences that make them viable for both domestic and commercial use. However, it would be good enough if modern techniques could be adopted to curb water shortages in the country. Some of the modern approaches include artificial recharging and ground water recharging. The Groundwater dams should also be adopted for the purposes of providing storage for groundwater.

References

Reitano, R., 2011. Water harvesting and water collection systems in Mediterranean area. The case of Malta. Procedia Engineering, 21, pp.81-88.

Lasage, R. and Verburg, P.H., 2015. Evaluation of small scale water harvesting techniques for semi-arid environments. Journal of Arid Environments, 118, pp.48-57.

Szyplinska, P., 2012. Thirsty World of Mining: Harvesting New Water Solutions.

Tirab, A.B. and Chimonyo, M., 2016. Constraints to Hamari sheep farming under range conditions in Darfur and Kordofan Regions of Western Sudan. Tropical animal health and production, 48(6), pp.1109-1114.

Oweis, T., 2018. Rainwater and floodwater harvesting for crop irrigation Dieter Prinz, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. In Water management for sustainable agriculture(pp. 185-224). Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing.