Addis Ababa, June 26, 2021(Walta) – South Sudan plans to realize a near decade-long dream to build a major dam along the Nile River in a bid to provide cheap, reliable electricity and help prevent devastating floods, the country’s deputy foreign minister told The National.
The world’s youngest country is plagued by flooding, a lack of power, water scarcity, and poor infrastructure, but the project is part of the oil-revenue funded government’s plan to fix its many ills, the minister said in Juba ahead of the 10th anniversary of independence.
“This is a strategic plan of the country, the government has a plan to build a dam for the generation of electricity and power because you can’t have a country without industrialization,” said Deng Dau Deng Malek from his office in the center of the South Sudanese capital.
“Look at the country today, most of South Sudan is flooded as we speak. The Upper Nile State is underwater. We weren’t given the opportunity as a country to think and plan. You look at the needs of the population, you look at the growing industries,” he said.
Malek said the Irrigation Ministry has been instructed to start conducting initial studies to help draft plans – including how tall the dam will need to be, the size of the reservoir behind the structure, and the number of turbines it could power.
“We will take into consideration when building the dam, the environmental impact, and the hydrological aspect. You look at the sustainability of it, you look at the neighborhood, you can’t do that overnight. You also anticipate the problems that might come ahead,” he said.
South Sudan sits on the borders of Ethiopia to the east, and Sudan and Egypt to the north.
Through the country flows the White Nile – one of the two main tributaries feeding the Nile River that meets and mixes near Khartoum with the Blue Nile that flows from the Ethiopian highlands, according to the National News.