The Sudan Handbook

land &  WateR    57

relationship 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,

1948. 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).