Finance Minister: Efforts to Secure Funding for Port Sudan’s Water Supply

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Jibril Ibrahim, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to supporting all immediate and future measures to solve Port Sudan’s water issue. He emphasized the Ministry of Finance’s pledge to provide the necessary funding for the required machinery to facilitate immediate interventions and remove obstacles in order to achieve the government’s goal of supplying clean drinking water to the state’s residents.

In an extensive meeting held at the ministry’s headquarters on Sunday, attended by Red Sea Governor (retired) Major General Mustafa Mohamed Nour, acting Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources M. Dhu Al-Bayt Abdul Rahman, and representatives of the Irrigation Ministry in the state, the minister revealed the government’s efforts to attract special funding for Port Sudan’s water from regional financing institutions, including the African Development Bank and the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD), which have expressed interest in participating in the rehabilitation of Port Sudan’s water supply. The meeting endorsed the Irrigation Ministry’s comprehensive plan for urgent and long-term solutions to the water problem following the collapse of the Arbaat Dam and the flooding of wells that supply drinking water to the city. The extent of the damage to the wells and the dam was assessed, and strategies for rehabilitation were discussed, in cooperation with UNICEF and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It was agreed to identify qualified companies to prepare urgent studies for permanent water solutions, with an immediate focus on rehabilitating the Salalab and Dam dams and completing the water supply lines to Port Sudan.