Sudan: The Gezira

The plains lying between the branches of the Blue and White Niles attracted the eye of British engineers almost as soon as Kitchener retook the Sudan. Berms could be made to pond water for livestock, and shifting cultivation could be undertaken without irrigation, but the ambitious British built Sennar Dam on the Blue Nile and laid out an immense canal system over this gezira, or peninsula. For a time, the project was very successful, but like so many other things in Sudan, it has fallen on hard times. See "Irrigation in Sudan Since Independence" for a dated (late 1980s) but detailed review.