Sarah Digs a Great Canal

By Anastasia Toufexis

A $260 million waterway for the remote southern Sudan

In the midst of green savannah stretching undisturbed for miles lumbers a Rube Goldberg-like contraption garnished with walkways, conveyor belts, pipes, vents and ducts. With squeaks, clicks, belches and groans, it lurches forward, a 40-ft.-tall wheel revolving at its side. The twelve buckets along the wheel's rim gouge out the earth and occasionally hurl wayward chunks of clay high in the air. Close by, groups of near-naked black tribesmen stand with spears in hand, staring in wonder.

This curious spectacle has occurred almost daily since July 1980, when digging began on black Africa's biggest current engineering project: the excavation of the Jonglei Canal in southern Sudan. Scheduled for completion in 1985, the canal will be one of the world's longest artificial waterways, stretching an imposing 220 miles.

The Jonglei project, named after the nearly inaccessible province it crosses, is being built to carry needed water to Sudan's arid north and to Egypt. The channel could irrigate some 600,000 acres of land by diverting 30% of the flow of the White Nile River, as much as 5.2 billion gal. of water a day, around the Sudd, a vast swampland in southern Sudan.

The Sudd, Arabic for barrier, is aptly named. Its central 7,000 sq. mi. are permanently clogged with reeds and papyrus and infested with 63 species of mosquito. From May to October, the White Nile floods and temporarily extends the swamp another 4,300 sq. mi. Says Daniel Yong, a member of the area's nomadic Dinka tribe and a Jonglei Canal project official: "In the rainy season there is water everywhere, but in the dry season you can die of thirst." The Sudd proved an obstacle to 19th century explorers, but today it is more of a hindrance to economic development. It can take a year for water entering the swamp to course through twisting channels; during that time, half of the precious liquid evaporates or is absorbed by plants.

A canal skirting the Sudd was first envisioned by British colonial administrators at the turn of the century. The current $260 million project is being built by a French consortium, the Compagnie de Constructions Internationales (CCI). To dig the 15-ft.-deep, 170-ft.-wide channel, nearly half of which is now excavated, CCI is using 20 bulldozers, five road graders, three cranes and five shovels. The star performer is clearly "Sarah," a West German-built excavator that was named after a Sudanese official's daughter. By the time the Jonglei Canal is finished, the bucket wheeler will have moved 3.5 billion cu. ft. of earth, enough to fill the Great Pyramid more than 38 times. Getting the eight-story-high, 2,300-ton excavator and its 1 million spare parts to Sudan, the largest nation in Africa and independent since 1956, was a challenging task. The machine had been in Pakistan, where it was used to dig a passage between the Indus and Jhelum rivers; it had to be broken down into 742 components for transport by ship, rail and barge.

Base camp for the project's 60 European, 45 Pakistani and 1,000 Sudanese employees is a prefabricated village erected at the juncture of the Sobat and White Nile rivers. Jokingly referred to as "Sobat Club Med," it boasts an airstrip, swimming pool, hospital, club and a French school with 40 European children. Cheese and fruits are imported from France. Says Christian Coupechoux, the project director: "Sometimes we run out of beer and whisky, but we never run out of wine." Still, life is grim. Armed bandits, holdovers from the Sudan civil war of 1955-72, harass workers. Illness is rife; Coupe-choux's predecessor died early last year of malaria. Even more distressing are the unrelieved isolation, heat and monotony. Says Pierre Blanc, the project's technical director: "It's like living on an island, only worse."

Predictably, the project has drawn some critical fire. Many southern Sudanese, who are black and often Christian, resent the diversion of their water to benefit the traditionally dominant Muslims of the north and of Egypt. But Sudanese officials say construction of the canal and a parallel all-weather roadway will aid the 6 million inhabitants of the south, enhancing communications and encouraging economic growth.

That prospect, however, leaves some experts uneasy. Opening up the region to commerce is sure to undermine the cattle-herding societies of the estimated 1 million Dinka and Nuer tribesmen who roam the Sudd. "But most of the traditional people want to change," contends Jonathan Jenness of the United Nations Development Program. "They don't want to be hungry, sick and uneducated and, most important, without political clout."

Another worry is that the channel will upset the migration patterns of wildlife, particularly antelopes. To minimize the canal's impact, 160 miles of the waterway will have gradually sloping embankments to permit animals to swim across.

The issues raised by the digging of the Jonglei Canal are so complex that many environmentalists caution against any predictions. Not so British Biologist Stephen Cobb, who headed one Jonglei survey team. "It won't be the disaster as first suspected," he says. "On balance, it is going to make life better for a lot of people." --ByAnastasia Toufexis. Reported byRobertC. Wurmstedt/Jonglei

With reporting by RobertC. Wurmstedt/Jonglei This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.