The Jonglei Canal is a project that has been proposed, started but never completed to divert water through the vast Sudd

Sudd

The Sudd , also known as the Bahr al Jabal, As Sudd or Al Sudd, is a vast swamp in South Sudan, formed by the White Nile. The word “sudd” is derived from the Arabic word “sadd”, meaning “block.” The term has come to refer to any large solid floating vegetation island or mat...

 wetlands of South Sudan

South Sudan

South Sudan , officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country located in the Sahel region of northeastern Africa. It is also part of the North Africa UN sub-region. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city; the capital city is planned to be moved to the more...

 so as to deliver more water downstream to Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

 and Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 for use in agriculture.

Concept

Due to the Sudd swamp, the water from the southwestern tributaries of the Nile, the Bahr el Ghazal system, for all practical purposes does not reach the main river and is lost through evaporation

Evaporation

Evaporation is a type of vaporization of a liquid that occurs only on the surface of a liquid. The other type of vaporization is boiling, which, instead, occurs on the entire mass of the liquid....

 and transpiration

Transpiration

Transpiration is a process similar to evaporation. It is a part of the water cycle, and it is the loss of water vapor from parts of plants , especially in leaves but also in stems, flowers and roots. Leaf surfaces are dotted with openings which are collectively called stomata, and in most plants...

.
Hydrogeologists in the 1930s proposed digging a canal

Canal

Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...

 east of the Sudd which would divert water from the Bahr al Jabal

Bahr al Jabal

Bahr al Jabal may refer to:* Bahr al Jabal, a section of the White Nile between Nimule and Lake No* Bahr al Jabal, a state of Southern Sudan renamed Central Equatoria in 2005...

 above the Sudd to a point farther down the White Nile, bypassing the swamps and carrying the White Nile's water's directly to the main channel of the river.

Planning and construction

The Jonglei canal scheme was first studied by the government of Egypt in 1946 and plans were developed in 1954-59. Construction work on the canal began in 1978 but the outbreak of political instability in Sudan has held up work for many years. By 1984 when the Southern Sudanese rebels (SPLA)

Sudan People's Liberation Army

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement is a political party in South Sudan. It was initially founded as a rebel political movement with a military wing known as the Sudan People's Liberation Army estimated at 180,000 soldiers. The SPLM fought in the Second Sudanese Civil War against the Sudanese...

 brought the works to a halt, 240 km of the canal of a total of 360 km had been excavated. The rusting remains of the giant German-built excavation machine – nicknamed "Sarah" - are visible on a Google Earth image at the south end of the canal. It was destroyed by a missile. As peace was restored in 2000, speculation grew about a restart of the project. However on 21/2/08, the Sudanese Government said the revival of the project was not a priority. However, in 2008, Sudan and Egypt agreed to restart the project and finish the canal after 24 years.

Potential impact

It is estimated that the Jonglei canal project would produce 3.5-4.8 x 10⁹ m³ of water per year (equal to a mean annual discharge of 110–152 m³/s (3,883-5,368 ft³/s),
an increase of around five to seven per cent of Egypt's current supply.
The canal's benefits would be shared by Egypt and Sudan, with the expected damage falling on South Sudan

South Sudan

South Sudan , officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country located in the Sahel region of northeastern Africa. It is also part of the North Africa UN sub-region. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city; the capital city is planned to be moved to the more...

. 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 limit the scope of the project in practical terms. The draining of the Sudd is likely to have environmental effects comparable to drying of the Lake Chad

Lake Chad

Lake Chad is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Africa, whose size has varied over the centuries. According to the Global Resource Information Database of the United Nations Environment Programme, it shrank as much as 95% from about 1963 to 1998; yet it also states that "the 2007 ...

 or the draining of the Aral Sea

Aral Sea

The Aral Sea was a lake that lay between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south...

.