Jabal Awlia dam

The two largest dams are the Rosaries and Sinar on the Blue Nile, both of these are multipurpose building.

The other two are Jabal Awlia on the White Nile and Khashm Al-Girba on Atbara River. Merowe is under construction on the Nile river. Also, there are three more projects underway- Kajabarin on the third cataract Nile, Saiteet on Atbara River and Al-Sheraik fifth cataract on Nile north of Atbara city.

Operating Dams:

1. SINNAR (BLUE NILE) 1926

2. JABAL AWLIA (WHITE NILE) 1937

3. ROSEIRES (BLUE NILE) 1950

4. KHASHM AL-GERBA (ATBARA) 1964

Under Construction

• MEROWE (NILE)

Underway Projects:

• Kajabar- third cataract Nile

Sinnar dam is the oldest in the country. It was built in 1926 to irrigate the Gezira Scheme. It has recently been renovated, as part of a programme to rehabilitate the Gezira irrigation scheme. The Sinnar Dam is fundamental to the Sudanese economy and up to 60 per cent of the country's agricultural production is dependent upon its water. The dam is built on the Blue Nile, about 300km south of the capital. The resulting reservoir provides irrigation water. The total area of the lake resulted from the dam construction is 140-160 square km with maximum depth averaging 26 meters. The lake produces 1000 tons of fish per year.

JABAL AWLIA - White Nile 1937 

Jabal Awlia Dam was constructed in the year 1937; it is located about 50 km southwest of Khartoum. The dam was built to support Aswan dam in southern Egypt, but handed over to Sudan government in 1977. The volume of fish estimated to be around 15.000 tons / year and is considered high in comparison with the available space.It created a lake.

The northern part of the lake's actual production is 8000 tons / year The fresh fish is transported to the capital.

ROSEIRES- Blue Nile1950

Rosaries Dam was built in the 1950, in the town of Damazin on the Blue Nile, about 500 km southeast of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The 280 MW hydroelectric plants located at the dam supplies nearly half of Sudan's power output, though generation varies greatly through the year with changing flow of the river. The dam also provides irrigation for the Gezira Plain. The lake resulted from the dam construction is 80 km in length and total area of 280 km with maximum depth averaging 50 meters, the area is expected to increase after the dam heightening is completed. The lake produces 1000 tons of fish annually.

Renovation Project

Since the dam's completion in the mid-1960s, the steel lining of the gates has become much corroded, hence, A German company has been commissioned to repair the gates and SMEC has been appointed engineering adviser to the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources. SMECs' role is to review and comment on the German renovation design and to oversee the repair process which is carried out during several months of each year from December onwards when downstream access to the gates is possible. Repair is expected to take three or four years. Islamic Development Bank is financing the work.

KHASHM AL-GERBA (ATBARA)

The dam was established on Atbara River in the year 1964, to irrigate Al-Gerba agricultural scheme and later on New Halfa scheme, the designed storage capacity of the dam is 1.2-milliar m3, in addition to the generation of electric power of  about 7000 KWHr. Lake it ceated produces 500 tons of fish per year.

Merowe High Dam

The Merowe High Dam, also known as Merowe Multi-Purpose Hydro Project or Hamdab Dam, is a large construction project in northern Sudan, about 350 km north of the capital Khartoum. It is situated on the river Nile, close to the 4th Cataract where the river divides into multiple smaller branches with large islands in between. Merowe is a city about 40 km downstream from the construction site at Hamdab. The main purpose of the dam will be the generation of electricity. Its dimensions make it the largest contemporary hydropower project in Africa.

Maridi dam & Jonglei Canal

Maridi dam was established in the fifties, as a means to provide clean drinking water. The war in south crippled important development projects, such as The Jonglei Canal project, considered to be one of the most important integration projects between Egypt and Sudan. It was halted in 1983 as a result of the Sudanese civil war. The project, work on which started in 1980, was a comprehensive engineering and environmental venture designed to make full use of the River Nile, promote human and economic development in semi-isolated regions and boost agricultural development in both countries. Up till the project's termination, 260 kilometers out of the total 360 kilometers were completed. Reports indicated that a missile launched by an unknown source destroyed the drill used for digging the canal.

The primary objective of the project was to ensure the flow of 4.7 billion cubic meters of water annually, to be equally distributed between Egypt and Sudan, and provide a model for similar water-conservation initiatives in other areas, such as the Mashar swamps and the swamps of the Bahr al-Ghazal area. The first stage of the project included the digging of a canal to provide approximately 3.8 billion cubic meters of water annually. A second canal was to double this amount, subject to agreement with the countries of the equatorial lakes.The termination of work came as a blow to the residents of the region, to Sudan as a whole and to Egypt. According to the project's research team, the benefits would have been felt over a wide area, from Bor in the south of Sudan to Kosti in the north. The project was to have developed modern irrigation and drainage facilities that would have put an end to agriculture being tied to the annual patterns of flooding and drought. The termination of the project also led to a considerable loss of livestock. According to the estimates of a national conference on peace in 1989, nearly 6.6 million head of cattle perished.

Expected dams in south sudan

The federal government will build three dams in southern Sudan costing 600 million US dollars to meet the needs of electricity demand in the semi-autonomous region. Sudan's Dam Implementation Unit (DIU) finalised plans to construct three dams in Wau of Western Bahr El Ghazal state, Juba of Western Equatoria state, and Torit of East Equatoria state.