Sudan Water Research Articles

A klímaváltozás hatása Szudán vízkészletére

In Sudan, the effects of climate change on water resources are widespread and varied. Sudan's water sources are diverse, including river, rain, surface, and groundwater, with the country's lands consisting of rivers, valleys, and creeks. Nevertheless, Sudan faces various water-related challenges such as inadequate sanitation, lack of safe drinking water, pollution, and scarcity. The country's water supply is at risk due to rapid population growth, urbanization, changing consumption patterns, and from agriculture, industry, and energy sectors. Moreover, the looming environmental changes, including global warming and increased greenhouse gas emissions, are expected to have significant social, environmental, and climatic impacts globally, particularly on water sources. The effects of climate change on Sudan's water resources are a cause for concern as droughts have already begun in some regions. It is therefore imperative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adopt clean energy sources while taking urgent and long-term measures to conserve water and mitigate climate change risks. This review highlights the issues related to climate change and its effects on water resources in Sudan, with a particular focus on how changing rainfall patterns will impact agriculture, which is the most critical indirect effect of climate change on water supply.

Estimates of Sudan’s historical water withdrawals from the Nile

Lacking reliable information on water withdrawals in the Nile Basin poses a major challenge for efficient water management. The annual amount of water withdrawn from the Nile in Sudan has been a notable research gap, with implications for various aspects. In the current research, we employed three methods to estimate the historical water withdrawals of Sudan from the Nile. These methods are based on (i) closing water balance by using river discharge and evaporation losses from surface water bodies, (ii) estimating incremental evapotranspiration through satellite information, and (iii) accounting for water needed for domestically-produced agricultural commodities. The results indicate that Sudan's water withdrawal from the Nile has increased substantially over the last decades. The highest magnitude of water withdrawal was observed during the last decade (2011–2020). Depending on the method used, this estimate ranged, on average, between 16.0 ± 2.2 km3 and 17.8 ± 1.3 km3. Given Sudan’s ambitious plans to expand the irrigated croplands horizontally, this upward trend in water withdrawal is likely to continue. To cope with the expected limitation in water resources, Sudan should adopt a vertical development pathway in the agricultural sector that prioritizes enhancing water use efficiency and improving crop productivity. The current research findings have immediate and far-reaching implications for the mode of development in the water and agriculture sectors in the country and transboundary water management.

The question of Sudan: a hydro-economic optimization model for the Sudanese Blue Nile

Abstract. The effects of development and the uncertainty of a changing climate in eastern Africa pose myriad challenges for water managers along the Blue Nile. Sudan's large irrigation potential, hydroelectric dams, and prime location within the basin mean that Sudan's water management decisions will have great social, economic and political implications for the region. At the same time, Sudan's water use options are constrained by tradeoffs between upstream irrigation developments and downstream hydropower facilities as well as by the country's commitments under existing or future transboundary water sharing agreements. Here, we present a model that can be applied to evaluate optimal allocation of surface water resources to irrigation and hydropower in the Sudanese portion of the Blue Nile. Hydrologic inputs are combined with agronomic and economic inputs to formulate an optimization model within the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS). A sensitivity analysis is performed by testing model response to a range of economic conditions and to changes in the volume and timing of hydrologic flows. Results indicate that changing hydroclimate inputs have the capacity to greatly influence the productivity of Sudan's water resource infrastructure. Results also show that the economically optimal volume of water consumption, and thus the importance of existing treaty constraints, is sensitive to the perceived value of agriculture relative to electricity as well as to changing hydrological conditions.