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Sudan’s Irrigation Ministry says engineers are now working to anticipate all possible scenarios resulting from the filling of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) to mitigate the negative effects expected when the dam begins to fill in June. Special work is being done to improve the drainage and filling systems of the El Roussin and Jebel Alya reservoirs.
Engineer Dabet Abdelrahman says this is to help farmers, herders, drinking water supplies, irrigation projects and all water users in the Nile areas in general.
He said the volume of water in the Blue Nile (which flows from the Ethiopian highlands to its confluence with the White Nile in Khartoum) is likely to decline from April to late September, so water levels in this sector will will reduce overall.
The engineer added that the White Nile sector will also be affected by the filling of the Renaissance dam in connection with the modification of the operating systems of the Jebel Alya reservoir. The main stream of the Khartoum Nile will be exposed to the same effects, the volume of water will be reduced, levels will decrease and the area of cultivated pasture will be reduced.
Preparation
Multiple meetings on the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and the strained relationship between Khartoum and Addis Ababa took place in February, in preparation for the expected filling of the dam in July by Ethiopia. The GERD committee, headed by Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, discussed the necessary precautions when Ethiopia begins to fill the dam, as it did last year.
During the meeting, Hamdok warned that Ethiopia will begin the second filling of the GERD next July, regardless of any agreement. Various national agencies and institutions must prepare for the negative effects on Sudan’s irrigation systems, electricity grids and drinking water along the Blue Nile and Nile rivers to Atbara, if the dam is filled.
