Nuba to get water dams

By Sufian Eltegani
Sudan Mirror
Volume 1, Issue 13 | 29th March-11th April, 2004

The regional Government has embarked on construction of dams in a bid to curb the water problem in the Nuba Mountains during the dry season.
People used to get water from the streams and valleys during the rainy season. In the dry season the streams and valleys dry up and the people have to dig wells near the dry streams. The wells cannot provide water for a long time as they, too, dry up in the course of the dry season.

The people in the Nuba Mountains have always suffered water problems, especially during the war because the has damaged most of the water resources in the region.

Work has started on construction of the dams with funding and technical assistance from the World Food Programme (WFP). The local people are employed to do the simple jobs on the project and are paid in kind, under the WFP project “food for work”.

Now the Government has already built about seven dams in deferent areas in the first phase of the project, with technical assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The Nuba Relief Rehabilitation and Development Organization (NRRDO) are working on the same project. They have managed to build three dams in the region with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Other agencies are also working on projects like Kinonia in Farish, Lutheran Church in Kujor. Concern International is also working on watershed programmes (building chick dams) in Kulo to Lowira.

One of the officials in Nuba Mountains told The Sudan Mirror that the regional government, besides NRRDO and the NGOs are progressing well and soon the water problem in the Nuba Mountains will cease.