Our Expertise

Historical background:

The establishment of the Hydraulics Research Center (HRC) in Sudan was proposed during the early years of the new irrigation development in Gezira. The Government requested UNDP assistance to undertake a feasibility study to establish HRC in Wad Medani. The study was followed by a preparatory assistance in 1974 and 1975. Implementation of HRC as a UNDP/UNESCO assisted project undertook place from August 1976 until the end of 1986. The government implementing agency was the Ministry of Irrigation, through its Irrigation Department at that time.

As a joint project, the UN grant included technical expatriates in HRC and supply of necessary equipment together with in-house and abroad training of engineers and technicians. The Government of Sudan prepared all necessary buildings and structures and hired the national staff.

Its mission is to give support to MoWRE for developing and improving water resources and management activities related to the main spheres of the national economy through basic and applied research. HRC is managed directly under the supervision of the Under-secretary of MoIWR. Its policies and research programs are reviewed and approved by the Council of Research headed by the Under-secretary MoWRE.

Soon after departure of foreign expatriates in the mid 1980's, the HRC were will equipped with strong team of national researchers, and excellent research facilities, to continue the wok on applied research related to water all over the Sudan. The HRC remains to be one of the very successful projects of UNDP/UNESCO on water research, and the model has been replicated in other developing countries.

The expertise

The HRC has along expertise to carry out the following:

• Elaboration and practical implementation and policy and plans of applied research activities based on government requirements concerning engineering tasks for reaching higher result in the use of water resource, hydraulic operation and maintenance of irrigation schemes or of hydraulic structures and work of the water utilization (hydropower, river training and bank protection, river navigation, flood protection and control water supply etc.),
• Flood protection and control along the rivers to prevent destruction of riparian settlements.
• Water supply structures and works
• Discharge calibration of structures and canals within irrigation schemes as well as periodic discharge measurement, to check and minimize water loss and to improve the water balance as main factor in promoting economical water use.
• Permanent control of the delivered discharge at farmer’s ditch level and means to calculate and individual water consumption.
• Co-operation with other interested institutions in joint multi-purpose research programmers, to solve applied research problems of mutual in interest
• General development of hydraulic engineering and research in the Sudan, in closes co-operation with other involved bodies (national council of research, university of Khartoum, Gezira university act.)
• Step- by-step systematic line will be for forged between designs, execution and operation of hydraulic works, research and higher technical education, thus contributing to a more science –based professional environment for future irrigation and agricultural engineering.