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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
River steamers and barges were once major means of
transporting passengers and goods on the Nile.
Courtesy Robert O. Collins
Buffalo cape on
the Bahr al Ghazal River in Aali on Nil State, a river station
where steamers took on wood for fuel; village huts in background
Courtesy Robert O. Collins
The Nile River, traversing Sudan from south to north,
provides an important inland transportation route. Its overall
usefulness, however, has been limited by natural features,
including a number of cataracts in the main Nile between Khartoum
and the Egyptian border. The White Nile to the south of Khartoum
has shallow stretches that restrict the carrying capacities of
barges, especially during the period of low water, and the river
has sharp bends. Most of these southern impediments have been
eliminated by Chevron, who as part of their oil exploration and
development program dredged the White Nile shoals and established
navigational beacons from Kusti to Bentiu. A greater impediment
has been the spread of the water hyacinth, which impedes traffic.
Man-made features have also introduced restrictions, the most
important of which was a dam constructed in the 1930s on the
White Nile about forty kilometers upriver from Khartoum. This dam
has locks, but they have not always operated well, and the river
has been little used from Khartoum to the port of Kusti, a
railroad crossing 319 kilometers upstream. The Sennar and
Roseires dams on the Blue Nile are without locks and restrict
traffic on that river.
In 1983 only two sections of the Nile had regular commercial
transport services. The more important was the 1,436-kilometer
stretch of the White Nile from Kusti to Juba (known as the
Southern Reach), which provided the only generally usable
transport connection between the central and southern parts of
the country. Virtually all traffic, and certainly scheduled
traffic, ended in 1984, when the SPLA consistently sank the
exposed steamers from sanctuaries along the river banks. River
traffic south of Kusti had not resumed in mid- 1991 except for a
few heavily armed and escorted convoys.
At one time, transport services also were provided on
tributaries of the White Nile (the Bahr al Ghazal and the Jur
River) to the west of Malakal. These services went as far as Waw
but were seasonal, depending on water levels. They were finally
discontinued during the 1970s because vegetation blocked
waterways, particularly the fast-growing water hyacinth. On the
main Nile, a 287-kilometer stretch from Kuraymah to Dunqulah,
situated between the fourth and third cataracts and known as the
Dunqulah Reach, also had regular service, although this was
restricted during the low-water period in February and March.
Transport facilities on both reaches were operated after 1973 by
the parastatal (mixed government and privately owned company)
River Transport Corporation (RTC). Before that they had been run
by the SRC, essentially as feeders to the rail line. River cargo
and passenger traffic have varied from year to year, depending in
large part on the availability and capacity of transport vessels.
During the 1970s, roughly 100,000 tons of cargo and 250,000
passengers were carried annually. By 1984, before the Southern
Reach was closed, the number of passengers had declined to less
than 60,000 per year and the tonnage to less than 150,000.
Although no statistics were available, the closing of the
Southern Reach had by 1990 made river traffic insignificant.
Foreign economists have characterized the RTC's operations as
inefficient, a result both of shortages of qualified staff and of
barge capacity. The corporation had a virtual monopoly over river
transport, although the southern regional government had
established river feeder transport operations, and private river
transport services were reported to be increasing until the
resumption of the civil war. Despite its favored position, the
RTC and its predecessor (SRC) experienced regular losses that had
to be covered by government appropriations. In the late 1970s,
the corporation procured new barges, pusher-tugboats, and other
equipment in an effort to improve services, but this attempt
proved useless because of the warfare that had continued from
1983.
Data as of June 1991
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