The Minister of Irrigation and Water Resource said that a defining characteristic of this year’s flood season was the large and unexpected White Nile water volume, which had surpassed all levels that had have been monitored for the past 100 years.
Khartoum: AlTaghyeer
Minister Yasser Abbas’ comments came during his Council of Ministers briefing on Tuesday on the 2021-2022 flood season.
The minister explained that the average revenue of the White Nile varied between 70 and 80 million cubic meters per day in previous years during the month of July, but rose to 120-130 million cubic meters per day during the current flood season.
He stressed that his ministry had successfully managed, for the first time, to use the Sudanese Roseires and Meroe reservoirs to break the severity of the floods during July and August.
He pointed out that the flood committee identified for the first time a “safe discharge”, amounting to 800 million cubic meters behind the Merowe Dam, and 550-650 million cubic meters behind the Roseires dam.
The minister pointed out that “despite the unilateral filling of the Renaissance Dam, the water crossed the dam’s middle passage on July 20, and after that all of the Blue Nile waters that entered the dam were equal to what came out of it.”
Abbas declared that the Renaissance Dam had not impacted this year’s floods, but pointed out that the failure to exchange information before filling forced Sudan to take costly measures.
During the meeting, the minister also reviewed a report on the flooding in the city of al-Faw and the great destruction that occurred to agricultural lands and said that “there was an important discussion regarding the necessity of draining the water as quickly as possible so as to prepare all flooded for the winter season.”
