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The world should support Sudan
As much as I have been pleasantly surprised by the international solidarity and media coverage following the Beirut explosion, international apathy and lack of adequate information about the catastrophic floods in Sudan have had an unpleasant impact on me. Half a million people have been affected, with more than 100,000 homes totally or partially destroyed. A large portion of those people have probably lost everything they owned, however the disaster is reported as regular news. In the same way that the world supported Lebanon in its anguish, it should support Sudan.
Sudan’s flood problem is recurring and needs a sustainable solution. The country experiences floods almost every year, but this year has been catastrophic due to the unprecedented amount of rain that has fallen on Ethiopia, the source of the Blue Nile. Some say the rainfall is the highest in 100 years. The calamity was due in part to natural factors, but also in part to a lack of urban planning. The two tributaries of the Nile, the Blue Nile from Ethiopia and the White Nile from Uganda, meet in Khartoum. More than a kilometer of the banks of the Nile in the capital have been filled in to widen the streets and allow the location of concrete buildings. This has reduced the river bed, decreasing its ability to accommodate additional water flow. Residential structures built alongside the Nile have also blocked the natural channels the river creates to diffuse the flow of excess water.
Sudanese farmers tend to settle on the banks of the river because the floods cover the land with silt, making it fertile and flat. However, the slums built near the riverbed make their inhabitants prone to the consequences of flooding. There is a Sudanese saying that goes: “The flood never forgets its way”, which means that the flood water will always return and cover the same areas that it has covered before. Therefore, every few years, history repeats itself, with masses of people losing their homes and belongings due to the floods. The slums are also increasing day by day due to population growth, which means that more and more people will be in danger in the future.
However, the problems created by geography can be solved by human ingenuity if there is proper governance and planning. The Netherlands, whose name literally means “netherlands”, has been able to handle its low elevation problem by placing pumps that push excess water, which then goes into its canals and finally into the sea. Sudan can solve your problem if a decision is made to establish a flood control and management system. In fact, the flood problem can become an asset.
The current government, similar to the Lebanese government, is not showing a quick and effective response to the disaster.
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib
Speaking with Dr. Issam Bashour, professor and soil expert at the American University of Beirut, he said that three steps are needed to solve this recurring problem: “You start with planting vegetation to retain more water; vegetation absorbs water and reduces soil erosion and the effect of landslides. The second step is the construction of terraces on the slopes to reduce the speed of the downhill flow. And the third step is the construction of flood control channels to divert the overflow of water ”. He added: “Sudan is a rich country with rich terrain, but it suffers from a lack of planning and poor environmental management.” Flood control channels could increase irrigated agricultural areas. They could also be linked to water storage lakes to be used in times of drought.
The technical solutions are easy and straightforward; the problem lies in political will. Under the government of Omar Bashir that lasted almost 30 years, the country was on the decline with corruption, while also suffering from international isolation due to its inclusion in the list of countries sponsoring terrorism. However, the current government, similar to the Lebanese government, is not showing a quick and effective response to the disaster. The difference between the two cases lies in the international response. The disaster in Sudan is far from over. The floods are expected to last until October, greatly affecting the supply of drinking water. These floods will not just destroy the homes of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese; will lead to diseases that accompany lack of clean water and food insecurity in the coming months. Therefore, the disaster will have a compound effect on the population of Sudan; however, the world is reluctant to take appropriate action.
Trying to explain this behavior, I spoke with a veteran Sudanese journalist living in Dubai, Omar Al-Omar. He told me: “People, be it the international community or the Sudanese diaspora, have tried to help in the past only to find that their help is being misused by the corrupt government. This created a huge detour. Furthermore, the current government has declared Sudan an affected country, but has not been able to engage adequately with the international community to obtain assistance.
The point is that the international community should not wait for the government of Sudan to commit. You must not allow the people of Sudan to pay the price for your government’s reluctance. It should act now and help the affected country. In addition to relief, the international community should provide a sustainable solution and install a flood management system that will relieve the Sudanese people of this problem once and for all.
• Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is the co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peacebuilding (RCCP), a Lebanese NGO focused on Track II. She is also an affiliate scholar with the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect the point of view of Arab News
