The Sudd is a vast expanse of
swampy lowland region in central South Sudan, formed by the river White
Nile. The area which the swamp covers is one of the world's largest
wetlands in the Nile basin. Its size is highly variable, averaging over
30,000 square kilometers, but during the rainy season depending on the
inflowing waters, the Sudd can extend to over 130,000 square km or an
area the size of England. 08 more images after the break...
The Sudd is drained by
headstreams of the White Nile, namely the Al-Jabal (Mountain Nile) River
in the centre and the Al-Ghazal River in the west. In the Sudd, the
river flows through multiple tangled channels in a pattern that changes
each year. Papyrus, aquatic grass, and water hyacinth grows in dense
thickets in the shallow water, which is frequented by crocodiles and
hippopotami. Sometimes the matted vegetation breaks free of its
moorings, building up into floating islands of vegetation up to 30 km in
length. Such islands, in varying stages of decomposition, eventually
break up.
The Sudd is considered to be
nearly impassable either overland or by watercraft. Thick with reeds,
grasses, water hyacinth, and other water loving plants, the Sudd can
form massive blocks of vegetation that can shift position and block
navigable channels creating an ever-changing network of water. Sometimes
there is no channel a boat can travel on that will lead through the
bog. For centuries this region has prevented explorers from travelling
along the Nile and is only sparsely inhabited by the pastoral Nilotic
Nuer people.
Village in the swamps of the White Nile near Bor, Jonglei, South Sudan
In
the late 1970s construction began on the Jonglei (Junqali) Canal, which
was planned to bypass the Sudd and provide a straight, well-defined
channel for the Al-Jabal River to flow northward until its junction with
the White Nile. But the project, which would have drained the
swamplands of the Sudd for agricultural use, was held up for several
years because of disruptions arising from the civil war in South Sudan.
By 1984 when the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) brought the works
to a halt, 240km of the canal of a total of 360km had been excavated.
One of the reasons for proposing
the canal project was to improve water supply in Egypt. Almost half the
water of the White Nile is lost in the swamps as vegetation absorbs it
or animals drink it. The canal's benefits would be shared by Egypt and
Sudan, with the expected damage falling on South Sudan. The complex
environmental and social issues involved, including the collapse of
fisheries, drying of grazing lands, a drop of groundwater levels and a
reduction of rainfall in the region, may however limit the scope of the
project in practical terms. The draining of the Sudd is also likely to
trigger massive environmental effects comparable to drying of Lake Chad
or the draining of the Aral Sea.
Via — Link
Comments
Post a Comment