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Sudan
Inland Waterways
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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