land & WateR 57relationship between government and private sector. The oil industry
appears to represent the most extreme manifestation of Sudan’s distinc-
tive political geography, in which the northern riverain area dominates,
and derives wealth from, the rest of the country.
When the oil runs out in Sudan, sometime in the next few decades,
water is likely to reassert itself as the country’s key economic resource.
The construction of dams on the Nile, the generation of electricity as an
alternative power source, and the establishment of associated agricultural
schemes are the main components of Khartoum’s development strategy
in the north. In the south, the Jonglei Canal, abandoned in 1983 at the
start of the north-south civil war, may be revived. But the effect of a new
Jonglei Canal project on dry season grazing and on the wildlife resources
of Sudan – and on public opinion – is hard to predict. It is also possible
that the waters of the Nile may become a source of international conflict.
Sudan is one of nine countries involved in the Nile Basin initiative (an
independent south Sudan would make this ten), which has attempted to
renegotiate the international agreements that regulate the use of water
by riparian states. The agreements give Egypt and Sudan the right to the
lion’s share in the use of the Nile waters. According to the Nile Waters
Agreement of 1929 (and its 1959 amendment), Sudan’s share is 18.5 billion
cubic metres. Together with Egypt’s 55.5 billion cubic metres, the claims
of the two northernmost riverain countries account for almost 90 per
cent of the annual flow of the Nile. Conflict over this resource has long
been a source of friction with the other Nile Basin countries; many years
of negotiation have failed to resolve their differences.Recommended Reading
Tothill, J.D. (ed.). Agriculture in the Sudan. London: Oxford University Press,- Barbour, K.M. The Republic of the Sudan: a Regional Geography. London:
University of London, 1961.
Howell, Paul, Lock, Michael and Cobb, Stephen (eds). The Jonglei Canal:
Impact and Opportunity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Collins, Robert O. The Waters of the Nile: Hydropolitics and the Jonglei Canal,
1900–88. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990 and Princeton: Markus Weiner, 1996.
The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors
(www.riftvalley.net).