Face of Truth | Ibrahim Shaglawi A story of success punished by the state
Wars do not test armies alone; they also test the efficiency of institutions and their capacity to endure. When the war broke out in our country in April 2023, systems collapsed, services were disrupted, and maps were redrawn. Yet what remained present was the imprint left by certain institutions that, at one time, succeeded in turning plans into reality. At that moment, an old question resurfaced: why does the Sudanese state fail to preserve its successful institutions?
The Dam Implementation Unit (DIU) may appear at first glance to be merely a technical engineering institution specialized in water projects, dams, and infrastructure. However, its story in this article goes far beyond engineering work, touching one of the most complex crises of the Sudanese state: the crisis of the relationship between competence and influence, between achievement and bureaucracy, and between development imperatives and the calculations of power and decision-making.
Over past decades, Sudan has not been poor in natural resources nor limited in development opportunities. Land is abundant, water is available, and its geographic location grants the country exceptional advantages. Yet the real dilemma has remained in the weakness of institutions capable of managing these resources and transforming them into economic and social value. For this reason, dozens of development projects remained trapped in studies and deferred promises, while development opportunities eroded under the weight of political and administrative conflicts.
In this context, the experience of the Dam Implementation Unit (DIU) emerged in 1999 as an attempt to break this vicious cycle. It was initially established to address the electricity crisis, but it soon evolved into an executive arm of the state in several strategic sectors. Within a few years, it succeeded in implementing projects that had remained for decades part of the country’s development dreams—from the Merowe Dam to the raising of the Roseires Dam, and the Upper Atbara and Setit dams complex, in addition to roads, bridges, water harvesting projects, and associated infrastructure.
However, the paradox often repeated in the Sudanese experience is that success does not always lead to institutional stability. Whenever an institution builds a level of expertise and efficiency, it finds itself confronted with schemes of obstruction and undermining, where excellence is seen as a threat to influence rather than an added value to the state.
The debate around the Dam Implementation Unit (DIU) was not so much about administrative subordination as it was an expression of a struggle between two approaches to state management: a traditional bureaucratic approach, and another based on efficiency and speed of execution—the very approach that gave the unit its distinction. Nevertheless, it was not exempt from accountability, review, and transparency.
However, administrative transfers and restructuring that followed 2019 deprived the unit of a significant portion of its accumulated cadres and expertise. The loss of institutions is not measured by assets and equipment alone, but also when memory and accumulated experience are lost, along with relationships built over years with partners, financiers, and centers of expertise. Such losses are often more costly than any financial losses.
The greater paradox is that the war revealed the strategic value of the Dam Implementation Unit’s projects, as the Merowe, Roseires, and Upper Atbara and Setit dams became the main source of electricity after thermal generation was disrupted. Thus, the war became the most practical test proving that what was once politically disputed has now become one of the pillars of state resilience and continuity of services.
The impact was not limited to dams. Bridges and roads implemented by the unit—foremost among them Shendi–Al-Metema Bridge, Al-Akad–Um Al-Tuyur Bridge, Merowe–Karima Bridge, and Dongola–Al-Saleem Bridge, in addition to Merowe Airport and the Social Insurance Hospital—proved vital in maintaining geographic connectivity and ensuring the continuity of supplies and services during the war. Agricultural projects in resettlement areas also supported production and hosted displaced populations, transforming these projects collectively into part of the strategic infrastructure that contributed to the stability of the state and society.
Recent developments of the Dam Implementation Unit (DIU) carry particular significance. Water harvesting projects, the Gedaref water project, and Saudi grant programs for the states confirm the continued need for an executive institution capable of transforming partnerships and funding into tangible outcomes. In the post-war phase, these projects are no longer merely development programs, but tools for stabilizing rural Sudan.
Therefore, water harvesting projects have become direct instruments for voluntary resettlement, community stabilization, reducing pressure on cities, and addressing the root causes of displacement and economic fragility.
If the state today speaks of efficiency, justice, and institutional reform, then these principles must begin with fairness to workers in institutions that have continued to perform their duties under difficult conditions. In this regard, many employees of the Dam Implementation Unit (DIU) express a sense of grievance after being excluded from salary adjustments approved for state employees in 2026, without clear legal or administrative grounds for this exception. For them, the issue is not a bonus or allowance, but employment rights that, in their view, should be governed by principles of justice and equality with other state employees.
In my view, according to #Face_of_Truth, the tragedy of the Dam Implementation Unit (DIU) was never that it failed in its role. Rather, its greatest problem may have been that it succeeded more than was tolerable in an environment that has long been more preoccupied with who manages development than with development itself. The Dam Implementation Unit, regardless of differing opinions about its experience, has presented a model worthy of recognition and honor, akin to honoring warriors.
May you remain in health and well-being.
Thursday, 25 June 2026
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