:The Face of Truth | Ibrahim Shaglawi The Dams Unit Returns the State to the Deferred Question of Developmen
The signing of the memorandum of understanding between the Dams Implementation Unit of Sudan’s Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development carries an important significance that goes beyond the bounds of technical cooperation and joint coordination. It becomes a deeply developmental political act at a time when the questions of reconstruction and the importance of the state’s return to its essential roles in protecting society, building institutions, and achieving stability are being imposed.The memorandum, signed yesterday, includes areas of water harvesting, capacity building for technical staff and farmers, and the preparation of technical and economic studies for water harvesting and supplementary irrigation projects. It was signed on behalf of the Dams Unit by its Director General, Dr. Al-Harith Mustafa, and on behalf of the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development by its Director General, Professor Ibrahim Al-Dukhairi. Both parties affirmed their commitment to maximizing the benefits of these projects in ways that contribute to stability and development.This signing cannot be read in isolation from the wider national context. Water in Sudan is a state issue, a key to stability, and a dividing line between development and fragility. Sudan is a country of abundant rainfall, yet it has remained unable to transform this natural abundance into a developmental asset. Rainfall ranging from about 260 mm in the central regions to more than 800 mm in the south is mostly lost through valleys and seasonal streams, amounting to nearly 440 billion cubic meters annually, while practical planning remains focused on the limited share of Nile waters. This paradox does not reflect a lack of resources but rather an absence of vision and will.In a country exhausted by war, the issue of water cannot be separated from the equation of social peace. Dams and water-harvesting projects cannot be viewed merely as service infrastructures, but as peace infrastructures and national pillars for resettlement and reconstruction.War has reshaped Sudan’s demographic geography, pushing millions of citizens to migrate from rural areas toward cities or beyond the borders, leaving behind their lands and sources of livelihood. At the heart of these harsh transformations, water has emerged as a decisive factor in the decision to stay or leave. Rural areas that lose the ability to secure water quickly become repelling environments, while areas with stable water sources become centers of attraction for return and reconstruction.From this perspective, rehabilitating water harvesting and supplementary irrigation projects represents a practical entry point for rebuilding the relationship between humans and land after war, redistributing the population in a way that eases urban pressure, and restoring demographic, economic, and developmental balance.Population migrations and climate change further complicate this equation. Sharp fluctuations in rainfall—between destructive floods and seasons of drought—make water management a matter of sovereignty par excellence. Sudan, which lies almost entirely under the rainy belt in certain seasons, faces the risk of this immense resource turning into a threat to the environment and infrastructure if preventive maintenance and proactive planning are absent.A blocked well, a collapsed reservoir, or the flooding of a neglected small dam does not only mean the loss of a facility; it means the loss of entire villages, the widening of displacement, and the reproduction of fragility that the state is trying to overcome in the post-war phase.In this context, the Dams Unit stands out as one of the few state institutions capable of linking security and development. Its role goes beyond implementing projects to engineering long-term stability options. Restoring value to this unit through regional partnerships—such as cooperation with the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development—means opening a window to rebuild trust in state institutions and sending a clear message that urban and demographic development are among the key pillars of stability.However, infrastructure alone is not enough. Water-harvesting projects, no matter how technically efficient, remain fragile without parallel investment in human capacity-building. War has weakened technical personnel, disrupted training and qualification chains, and emptied rural areas of the local expertise that once managed and maintained these facilities.Hence the importance of what the memorandum of understanding includes—focusing on worker training, farmer capacity-building, and enhancing the efficiency of engineers and technicians—so that water projects become living systems capable of sustainability.Politically, investing in human capacity conveys a message different from that of emergency relief. It marks a transition from addressing the consequences of war to addressing its roots, by empowering local communities to manage their resources and reducing their dependence on the central state or international organizations for life’s most basic necessities. This transformation reinforces the decentralization of development and restores the status of rural areas in nation-building.Moreover, linking water harvesting with rain-fed agriculture and livestock production opens new horizons for the rural economy. Water stability means agricultural stability, agricultural stability means jobs, sustainable income, and resilience in the face of shocks. This in turn helps reduce the drivers of conflict over resources and reshapes the relationship between farmers and herders based on complementarity rather than conflict—one of the essential conditions for rebuilding the social fabric.In the reconstruction phase, the seriousness of the state is not measured by the number of roads or buildings constructed, but by its ability to bring life back to the peripheries and convince displaced people that return is possible, safe, and economically viable. Here, water is the first language that rural communities understand: when it is available, agriculture follows, then services, then stability. When it is absent, all reconstruction projects stumble regardless of their cost.Yet the real wager remains on the Sudanese state itself. Sudan possesses land, water, intellect, and expertise, but it lacks confidence in its own abilities and the solid will to translate accumulated studies into active policies. There can be no sustainable development without a national strategy for rainwater harvesting, no stability without sound resource management, and no social peace without breaking the historical cycle between water scarcity and conflict.From this perspective, and according to The Face of Truth, the memorandum of understanding between the Dams Implementation Unit and the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development represents an early test of the state’s ability to transform regional partnerships into instruments of national reconstruction. Either these agreements will remain locked in drawers or they will turn into concrete programs that bring the state back to the deferred question of development and place water at the heart of a political-developmental project that addresses the consequences of war and paves the way for the return of people to rural areas—where water once again becomes a symbol of life rather than a sign of crisis.May you remain in good health and wellbeing.
Thursday, December 25, 2025
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