Sudan

From WaterWiki.net

Sudan is part of:
Africa · Arab States · Eastern Africa · Middle East · Northern Africa ·
Water Basins of Sudan:
Baraka · Congo-Zaire · Gash · Lake Turkana · Lotagipi Swamp · Nile ·

Facts & Figures

edit

Capital

Khartoum

Neighbouring Countries

Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Congo, Central African Republic, Chad, Libya

Total Area

2,505,810 km²

- Water

129,810 km² (5.18%) / 518 m²/ha

- Land

2,376,000 km²

Coastline

853 km

Population

36,232,950 (14.5 inhab./km²)

HDI^A

0.526 (2007)

Gini Coefficient^A

n/a (1995)

Nominal GDP^B

$62,190 million

GDP (PPP) Per Capita^B

$2,200

National UN Presence

FAO, UNDP, UNHCR, WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, UN-Habitat, UNIDO, UNEP

Land Use^C

- Cultivated Land

139,000 km² (6.95%)

- Arable

135,600 km² (6.78%)

- Permanent Crops

3,400 km² (0.17%)

- Irrigated

18,630 km²

- Non cultivated

1,861,000 km² (93.05%)

Average Annual Rainfall^D

416 mm

Renewable Water Resources^E

154 km³

Water Withdrawals^F	37.32 km³/yr
- For Agricultural Use	97%
- For Domestic Use	3%
- For Industrial Use	1%
- Per Capita	1,134 m3 per person m³

Population with safe access to
- Improved Water Source	70%
- Urban population	78%
- Rural population	64%
- Improved Sanitation	34%
- Urban population	99%
- Rural population	24%

References & Remarks

^A UNDP Human Development Report

^B CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia

^C CIA World Factbook Country Profiles

^D Aquastat - FAO's Information System on Water and Agriculture

^E CIA World Factbook

^F Earthtrends

No maps

1 News
2 Country Profile: Climate, Geography, Socio-Economic Context
3 Country Profile: Water Bodies and Resources
4 Country Profile: Legal and Institutional Environment
5 Country Profile: Water Sector Coordination
6 Country Profile: Trends in Water Use, Management and Sanitation
7 Country Profile: Challenges and Opportunities
8 Articles
9 Projects and Case Studies
10 Publications
11 Who is Who
12 References
13 See also
14 External Resources

News

Country Profile: Climate, Geography, Socio-Economic Context

Sudan is the largest country in Africa. It is bordered by Egypt and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya on the north, Chad and the Central African Republic on the west, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya on the south, and Ethiopia and Eritrea on the east. The Red Sea lies to the north-east and forms a coastline of 700 km (Map 1.2). Most of the country is part of the Nile River basin. Largely composed of a flat plain, it ranges from 200 to 500 metres in altitude except for isolated hills at Jabel Mera, the Nuba Mountains and the Red Sea Hills. Annual rainfall varies from 25 mm in the Sahara desert, in the north, to over 1,500 mm in the south. Temperatures generally vary from 4°C to 50°C. Surface features range from tropical forest and marsh in the south and centre to savannah and desert in the north, east and west. The population was estimated at 37.7 million in 2006 (WHO/UNICEF, 2008). About 25% of the inhabitants live in the capital, Khartoum.

Sudan is so vast (about 2,000 km from north to south and 1,800 km from east to west) that it lies in multiple climatic zones. In the north, where the Sahara extends into much of the country, the climate is arid, while the south is influenced by a tropical wet-and-dry climate. This variation directly affects rainfall: a rainy season runs from April to October in southern Sudan, but the rainy period gradually diminishes in length towards the north, and rainfall is scarce in the far north. Overall, December to February is the driest period except on the Red Sea coast. In addition to geographic and seasonal variability in rainfall distribution, there are indications of a decreasing trend in the amount of rainfall in the last 30 years, with the dry zone increasingly extending towards the south.

Country Profile: Water Bodies and Resources

Almost 80% of the country falls in the basin of the Nile River and its two main tributaries: the White Nile, originating in the equatorial lake region (shared by Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zaire), and the Blue Nile, which rises in the Ethiopian highlands. The two join at Khartoum to form the Nile, which flows northwards through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. About 67% of the Nile River basin lies within Sudanese territory. Estimates of the availability of water resources in Sudan range from 36 billion m³ (SNWP, 2002) to 44 billion m³ (Salih et al., 1982). In both cases, the biggest and the most reliable source is the Nile.

Country Profile: Legal and Institutional Environment

Water resources management is fragmented in Sudan. In an attempt to address this problem, the Water Resources Act (1995) gave responsibility for managing freshwater resources to the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources. Four years later, a National Council for Water Resources was formed. It is headed by the ministry, with participation by central and state government representatives. Its objective is to formulate general policies and the outline of water resources development and management for the whole country, and to coordinate actions between the state and central levels. The main laws concerning water resources and their protection are the Environmental and Natural Resources Act (1991), the Water Resources Act (1995) and the Groundwater and Wadis Directorate Act (1998). They cover the entire spectrum of development, management and protection of freshwater resources.

These efforts have not been successful, however, as various dimensions of water resources management are still spread among different ministries and dealt with by many government organizations without integration or coordination. Thus, many aspects of the legislation are not enforced, with responsibilities ill defined and coordination lacking. Moreover, major gaps in the laws exist. For example, in irrigation development projects, protection of groundwater resources from agricultural pollution is not taken into consideration. Nor do mining projects or the newly introduced oil development include any provision for groundwater protection. Efforts to produce a national water policy are continuing.