Oil and Water in Sudan 205Flooding of the canal especially during the rainy season meant that many
villages would require resettlement.
Speculations on the large number of Egyptians (1 000 000) who would be
settled in the Jonglei area to build the canal caused fear of an impending
occupation of the south by the Egyptians;
The fear that the ecology of the Sudd would change and that as it drained,
it would be utilised for mechanised agriculture by the northern govern-
ment.Unlike previous designs of the Jonglei project, the design implemented in
1974 incorporated rural integrated development projects targetting local pop-
ulations affected by the canal. The projects included the establishment of irri-
gation farming, cattle centers and social services among other developmen-
tal programmes.
As the canal project continued, costs began to mount and ways were
sought to reduce expenses. Plans to build bridges across the canal were
shelved and flood embankments along the canal were built lower than orig-
inally planned, resulting in the drowning of many animals. Moreover the
promised development projects were not implemented, deepening suspicion
among the southern Sudanese communities. Many southern Sudanese felt
that the project was established to benefit north Sudan and Egypt at their
expense. In 1983-84 the rebellion by the SPLM/A brought a halt to the con-
struction of the canal.
Perhaps one of the greatest lessons to be learnt from the canal is the need
for participation by local communities in the development and implementa-
tion of national projects to exploit and develop natural resources.
Case Study 2: Nuer-Dinka Violence
The Nile is the chief geographic feature moulding Sudan's unique historical
trajectory. Outside influences followed the course of the Nile Valley as far as
the swampy bamer imposed by the Sudd, and then spread outward. The geo-
graphic divide of the Sudd separated the Islamicised north from fiercely inde-
pendent traditional pastoral groups inhabiting the vast flood plain and the
environment beyond it.
The Sudd, the swamp at the heart of the Nile, is an environment unlike
any other in the world. Water floods large areas for over four months a year,
then recedes during an extended dry season forcing the dispersed inhabitants
towards the rivers. The region's chief inhabitants are the Dinka - the single
largest ethnic group in Sudan - and the Nuer, a closely related community
that hived off from the Dinka in the distant past. The long-standing rivalry