Water water resources – The face of truth – ✍️ Ibrahim Shaqlawi
In the context of the limited declaration of the formation of the “government of hope”, many questions concern the restructuring departments of the executive system, in particular in relation to the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation. When the appointment of Professor Esmat Qureshi as Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation implicitly refers to the separation of the irrigation skills of the other components of the ministry, which restores the discussion on the possibility of creating an independent ministry concerning “water resources and dams” in the foreground.
This hypothesis and its share are taken from the extreme strategic importance of this sector in the geographic and political context of Sudan, taking into account its central location in the System of the countries of the Nile basin and the complications of the regional water safety file.
But the great paradox, and perhaps disturbing, that the announcement of this appointment came the same day when the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abi Ahmed, announced the completion of the construction of the Renaissance dam and the call to its inauguration in September, in a detailed moment for regional water safety. On the other hand, the Sudanese response came to merge the ministry of irrigation with agriculture, in a decision that seemed to some, either a lack of conscience of the importance of the regional water file, or a deliberate ignorance of the sovereign and strategic depth that this ministry represents.
In addition, we do not forget the hidden conflict which takes place these days on “the Entebby agreement” and the creation of the Nile Basin Commission, which will be entrusted to an examination of the water division agreement between the basin countries and the prior approval of any water safety project that it wishes to implement any state.
This integration, which some have provided as an administrative procedure and perhaps restructuring, carries in its history of major indications to which it is necessary to pay attention, because it raises questions on the vision of Dr. Kamel Idris for the concept of governance, the institutional reform and the feasibility of dismantling a ministry in successive governments a symbol of the sovereign and the discreet technical management.
The Ministry of Water Resources, with the Departments of groundwater and valleys, the authority of drinking water, meteorology, the unit of implementation of the dams, and the time in water, and others, is not only an administrative system, but rather one of the pillars of the country’s national security.
Experiences, during the government of Dr Abdullah Hamdouk, how the falsification of the structure of this ministry led to a significant drop in its performance, because the file was entrusted to an unsuccessful minister, at a time when the country was confronted with complicated challenges in the Renaissance dam file, conflicts of water borders and the deterioration of water infrastructure.
This increases the confusion scene, that, despite the serious challenges that the country is confronted at this sensitive stage, the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources – depending on what certain observers see – were not present as required in the post -war scene, in particular with regard to the reassessment of damage and the resumption of artistic and institutional work. The former minister, began as if he had moved away from the executive field, was occupied by internal problems that affected the pace of work and reduces the participation of technical skills that have long formed the backbone of the ministry.
And if we do not refuse the difficulty of the scene and we put pressure on the conditions, by relying on a narrow circle in file management – in the midst of the absence of skilled energies – threw its shadow on the performance of the ministry. Open holidays have been imposed on a number of workers, and important files have been left without sufficient follow -up – at a time when other ministries launched committees to limit and assess damage and resume basic activities.
In the midst of these initiatives, the Ministry of Water Resources was absent from a scene which is supposed to be at its foreground, because of its strategic importance in the reconstruction of infrastructure and citizens in service … in particular in agricultural projects.
The decision to announce ministerial training by lots, despite what is promoted to it as an attempt to organize priorities, appears in some of its joints – including the case of the Ministry of Water Resources – that it is an attempt to restructure some of the vital joints of the State outside the national debate or community control, which raises the reform of the institution.
According to what we see from the face of the truth, the absence of an integrated vision in the management of the water file and the dismantling of the technical institutions established without clear alternatives, prefigures a high strategic cost which will pay Sudan in its water safety, its regional relationships and its future resources.
Does this approach resist the test of time and challenges? Or will the government’s announcement in lots be revealed to reveal erosion in the idea, before its structure is finished?
You are fine and well.
Saturday July 5, 2025 ad shglawi55@gmail.com
