Sudan warns of flood risk after Nile water levels rise

Authorities issue alert in six states including the capital Khartoum

Egypt and Sudan want Ethiopia to accept a legally binding agreement on the running of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. AP

Authorities in Sudan have issued a flood alert after the level of the Nile river and its tributaries rose to dangerous levels.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation said water levels had risen in six of the country's 18 states, including the capital Khartoum.

Residents were advised to protect themselves and their property.

Sudan is prone to destructive flooding in August and September due to heavy rainfall in parts of the country and the highlands of neighbouring Ethiopia, where the Nile's main tributary, the Blue Nile, originates.

Floods in the last few years have caused widespread material damage, killed dozens and reduced the power output from a string of hydroelectric dams built on the Blue Nile.

The flooding is made worse by the fragility of Sudan's infrastructure that has been significantly damaged by the two-year civil war that has ravaged the country.

Besides Khartoum, the states named as being at risk are Blue Nile, Sennar, Al Jazeera, Nile River and White Nile.

In Egypt, Sudan's neighbour and fellow Nile nation, state media said the rising water levels and flood threats were caused by Ethiopia's “mismanagement” of the large Blue Nile dam it built near the Sudanese border.

Egypt and Sudan have been trying without success for a decade to persuade Ethiopia to accept a legally binding agreement on the running of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

While Sudan has consistently maintained it needed information on how the dam is being run, Egypt has viewed it as an existential threat, warning that any reduction in its share of the Nile water would cost hundreds of thousands of farming jobs and disrupt its delicate food balance.

The Blue and White Niles meet in Khartoum before moving north to Egypt through the deserts of northern Sudan.

One of the world's driest nations, Egypt depends on the Nile for almost all of its fresh water needs.