Climate change presents additional stress for Sudanese people struggling with poverty, post-conflict recovery, and environmental degradation. It has exacerbated Sudan’s social and economic challenges with the increasing occurrence of floods and droughts due to the growing inter-annual precipitation variability in the Nile basin. These effects can already be seen today and have a massive impact on the water-food-energy-nexus. Extreme events have led to widespread property loss, damage to irrigation facilities and water services, and the spread of waterborne diseases.
The population in the Nile River system is estimated at 31 million. Although the population at risk of flood is unknown, many of the major cities of Sudan (e.g., Khartoum, Wad Madeni, Singa, Rabak, and Ad Damar) are located along the mainstream or tributaries of the Nile, and the combined population of these cities alone amounts to more than 10 million, many of which suffered severely from the flood disasters in the last decades.
During the recent flood in 2020, the Nile reached its highest water level in 100 years, by more than 60 centimeters, and inflicted devastating damage to Sudan. The flood began in mid-July and marked the country's worst event in 30 years. According to the National Council for Civil Defence in Sudan, at least 121 people died, 54 were wounded, more than 98,000 houses collapsed, and more than 97,000 agricultural acres and numerous livestock were lost. Moreover, many buildings and facilities were adversely affected.
This Response Plan was prepared to correspond to the technical assistance request submitted by the Nile Water Department, Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources of Sudan. The requested technical assistance focused on strengthening the capacities for flood and drought preparedness and early warning system in Sudan using operational and innovative models. In mutual discussions with the CTCN, national proponent, and the NDE, it was agreed to focus the scope of the requested technical assistance on flood early warning and preparedness specifically. The requested technical assistance has been subjected to a scope reduction shifting from a broad range of interventions (flash floods, drought, installation of telemetric monitoring stations, amongst other aspects) to the enhancement of an existing flood early warning system and corresponding modeling framework.
The proposed technical assistance will enhance the existing Flood Early Warning System (FEWS) set up by the Nile River basin regional entity the Eastern Nile Technical Regional Office (ENTRO) – comprising Egypt, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Sudan – so that it is appropriate for Sudanese authorities’ flood management operations in Sudanese national sub-basins.
The key outcome of this technical assistance will be Sudan being enabled to operate an innovative adaptation technology such as a FEWS to increase the resilience of communities, infrastructure, and economic sector investments in flood-affected areas. The enhancements to the existing technology will include an early warning component that will allow better preparation and increased response capacity by authorities and communities for upcoming floods, minimizing losses and damages.