Face of Truth: Random Mining… Threatens Water Harvesting..!
Ibrahim Shaglawi
It is unfortunate that our country today suffers from complex transformations at the economic, security, and environmental levels, accompanied by a clear decline in the effectiveness of managing several state institutions. This has resulted in an exhausted reality that has, in some aspects, affected the policies and legislations related to random gold mining. While it serves as a quick source of income for millions of citizens worn down by the pressures of war and economic collapse, it has simultaneously become a direct threat to the environment and water security, especially for water harvesting projects.
Since the secession of South Sudan in 2011, Sudan has relied on gold to fill revenue gaps. However, the absence of strict legislation and effective oversight opened the door to artisanal mining, which now produces more than 80% of the gold through two million workers in the Nile River, Northern, Kordofan, and Darfur states. Despite its considerable contribution to national income, it has turned into a cumulative environmental disaster due to the random use of toxic substances such as mercury and cyanide in extraction, without any environmental or engineering standards that ensure environmental safety and water security.
This is happening through its expansion into areas that intersect with flood streams and groundwater basins, where water harvesting projects have been established to provide drinking water and support agriculture, grazing, and population stability. These projects have become threatened by chemical toxin leakage, especially during the rainy seasons, when floods become a dangerous carrier of toxic waste. Residents in areas such as “Khor Kribish” in the Nile River state have documented how floods carry polluted mining waste into villages and wells, mixing with drinking water and reaching livestock and children, causing serious health and social effects.
What worsens the situation is that some residents — due to the lack of alternatives and environmental awareness — resorted to using mining waste to build barricades to confront the floods, which led to direct leakage of toxic substances into the Nile River. The floods of the autumns of 2024 and 2025 revealed the extent of this pollution, and its consequences appeared in the form of increased disease rates and the degradation of agricultural lands.
In light of the ongoing war since mid-April 2023, the state has been absent from close supervision and monitoring, while some mining companies acted as if they were above the law, driven by alliances with powerful networks within state agencies. Even previous initiatives, such as the National Conference on Mercury Alternatives in 2021, did not achieve tangible results due to the absence of accountability and the conflict of political will.
Water harvesting projects are a strategic cornerstone for stability and development in Sudan, especially in rural areas. However, leaving them exposed to pollution and neglect represents an abandonment of one of the state’s core roles in protecting vital resources. The threat to water security, in the context of increasing scarcity and severe climate changes, is a direct threat to political and social security. The danger of random mining cannot be treated as merely an environmental crisis, but rather as a battle related to sovereignty and legitimacy. A state that fails to protect its people’s water undermines the foundations of its survival.
Confronting this disaster requires adopting a comprehensive national vision for managing and protecting water resources from pollution, based on developing an integrated strategy to protect harvesting projects and groundwater, updating contour maps of flood streams and linking them to mining areas, imposing strict prohibition zones for any polluting activity near water basins, and establishing a national network to monitor water quality and its changes,
Alongside strengthening the role of local communities and governments in operating and maintaining the projects through training and environmental education. A national fund for rural water projects can also be established, benefiting from local and international funding, and managed transparently to support infrastructure and integrate and sustain modern technologies such as solar and wind energy to pump water in remote areas.
According to #Face_of_Truth, water harvesting projects are not merely development initiatives, but a strategic pillar for stability and social development. Leaving them exposed to pollution and chaos represents a retreat from one of the most important roles of the state, which it declared as part of the Millennium Development Goals for 2030. The threat to water security, amid increasing scarcity and severe climate change, is not merely an environmental crisis but an existential battle tied to the legitimacy and survival of the state. Water is the first line of defense for the life of the Sudanese people, and whoever loses control over it loses the essentials of survival.
Wishing you well and health.
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Shglawi55@gmail.com