Sudan - located in northeastern Africa – was the largest country in the continent prior to the secession of South Sudan in 2011. Historically, the country’s economic growth has been disproportionately dependent on agriculture as a source of income and employment for over 80% of Sudanese. However, oil discovers in the 1970s have driven most of Sudan’s post-2000 growth.
The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) efforts towards social and economic development for Sudan began in 1976. The county has remained a focus for the fund in the context of alleviating socio-economic progress, a key pillar for the fund and directly in line with its strategy on continuing its active role in stimulating economic growth in developing countries.
ADFD has provided and manages funds for 17 projects in various sectors including energy, water irrigation, industry and others, the total of which amounts to AED 2 billion. Among these projects are the Merowe, Roseires, Atbara and Setit dams, which have played pivotal roles in supporting economic and social development. ADFD’s objectives cognate with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Dams serve as an enabler of the facets of social and economic development, serving multiple purposes including providing clean water and sanitation as mentioned in (SDG 6), which subsequently leads to agricultural development (SDG 2), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), creation of jobs and infrastructure erection for industry (SDG 8,9), and several more.
Significant Infrastructure Upgrades
Upon its inauguration in 2009, the Merowe Dam and Hydropower plant – located on the Nile River roughly 350 kilometers north of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum – effectively doubled the country’s electricity generation capacity. Whereas in 2006, Sudan’s total installed capacity amounted to 1,000 megawatts, the 1,250 megawatts project greatly expanded the nation’s electricity supply, reduced historical reliance on thermal power generation and mitigated frequent high power outages. Recognized as one of the largest hydropower projects in Africa, the Merowe Dam constituted the government’s most ambitious initiative to boost economic activity in the region by enhancing its sources of renewable energy and expanding irrigated land across northern Sudan. It was not until 2000 when the Sudanese government, after actively courting investors abroad on successive tours, engaged with Arab countries. This resulted in a delegation of Arab funds arriving in Sudan to evaluate the project and ultimately agreeing to fund 70% of the civil works, which then enabled the project’s commencement. The $2.4 billion Merowe Dam was funded by Abu Dhabi Fund for Development ($200 million) along with a consortium of international financiers.
Located near the Nile’s fourth cataract, the Merowe dam was built between 2003 and 2009 and represents only the second dam built on the Nile River, succeeding the Aswan Dam in Egypt, completed in 1968. Likewise, the project is only the second major hydroelectric project in the country, after the 280 megawatts Roseires Dam, which was completed in 1966 on the Blue Nile river basin, roughly 315 miles southeast of Khartoum.
The Merowe Dam has a length of around 9 kilometers, a crest height of up to 67 meters and a concrete-faced rock fill dam on each riverbank, creating a reservoir of 8.3 cubic kilometers or roughly 20% of the Nile’s annual flow. The reservoir lake, which stands 300 meters above sea level, has a length of 174 kilometers while the hydroelectric component involves 10 turbines, each with an output of 125 megawatts, and a generation capacity of over 6,500 GWh of annual low cost energy.
To successfully utilize the excess generation capacity, significant upgrades and extensions were made to the Sudanese power grid, including around 500 kilometers of new 500 kV aerial transmission line to Khartoum, as well as about 1,000 kilometers of 220 kV lines eastwards to Port Sudan and westwards along the Nile. The construction of the dam was finished on December 2008, resulting in reliable electricity supply to more than 90% of the region’s population.
Beyond Electricity
Prior to the dam’s completion, a thermal-hydro mix that amounted to a total installed capacity of around 1,000MW, generated electricity in 2006 for Sudan’s population of more than 32 million. In 2006, the total electrical energy consumption in Sudan was 3,000 GWh per year, which equates to a per capita electricity consumption level of about 90 Kwh per year, one of the lowest per capita electricity consumptions in the world and largely a result of a suppressed demand and supply equilibrium. On the agriculture front, most farms in the predominantly agrarian country relied on rain and were highly susceptible to unstable weather patterns or droughts. Ongoing adverse weather conditions, flooding and weak world agricultural prices had all contributed to a difficult economic environment that didn’t change prior to the dam’s development. The construction of the Merowe dam successfully increased the average size of agricultural property in northern Sudan. Agricultural projects including; Alhamdab, Amri, Almanasir and Kihaila increased the total land packets that can be cultivated from 10,000 acres to 207,000 acres. Supporting projects for the property and dam include – Roads: Merowe City Dam side road – 36km, Karima City Dam site road – 27km, Karima Nawa road – 180km and rehabilitation of an estimated 254kmm of the North road, Bridges: Merowe – Karima bridge, Dongola – Al Silaim bridge, Shandi – Metema bridge and Dabba – Agri bridge. In addition, a new reservoir boasting a capacity of 8.3 billion cubic meters and an irrigational extent reaching as far as over 400 kilometers, the project successfully covers an area of more than 66.67 hectares and impacts more than 3 million local people.
These benefits come in addition to around 400,000 hectares of agricultural land that can now be irrigated through the stored water supplies and the added protection of northern Sudan against destructive high floods of the river Nile. Similarly, the dam acts as a sediment trap, reducing sedimentation at the Aswan High Dam further down the Nile in Egypt. But most importantly, the Sudanese government power generation and transmission program was fulfilled by significantly expanding its existing capacity by more than two-fold. The people belonging to the Hamdab, Amri and Manasir tribes were part of the relocation scheme. There are a total of 4 schemes, two of which are located downstream of the dam site and two upstream of the reservoir. A total of about 18,000 people received 2.5ha of land, new pumping stations and new canals were constructed for them. All the existing houses were compensated with higher quality materials to be rebuilt in the new settlement schemes. The villages received developed services that weren’t available prior to the re-settlement – drinking water, mosques, markets, schools and most importantly, electricity.
Prospects for Development
Despite of this critical contribution to the country’s energy mix, Sudan’s electricity production faces future challenges if it does not develop further alternative projects due to decreased rainfall and increased consumption. According to the UN, only 35% of Sudan’s 39 million population as of 2016 has access to electricity while more than 25 million people are not yet connected to the national electricity grid. Currently, thermal generation still contributes to up to 50% of Sudan’s energy mix, with the remainder being provided largely by the Merowe and Roseiris dams, which both amount to 3,050 megawatts. In the pipeline, the Sudanese government continues to expand its power generation assets with the assistance of ADFD, commissioning the 320 megawatts upper Atbara and Setit dam, which was inaugurated in 2017. These developments are part of a larger government plan to develop 3 hydroelectric dams in the region at Kajbar on the Nile’s third cataract to generate an additional 360 megawatts of electricity.
Recognizing these challenges, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development will continue to support the Sudanese government in their exciting development agenda for various projects. Projects including the recent aforementioned dams will promote economic development in line with the goal of the fund as well as of the United Nations, as part of the widely adopted Social Development Goals. The completed projects have provided the people with necessities that were severely lacking prior to the support and guidance from the ADFD, the projects and initiatives that are in the pipeline will continue to provide for a better standard of life with access to more developed services for the Sudanese.