Sudan faces one of the world’s most severe water crises, driven by a collision of armed conflict, climate change, and crumbling infrastructure. Only about 52% of the population has access to even a basic drinking water service, defined as an improved source within a 30-minute round trip. In some states, that figure drops below 30%. The civil war that erupted in April 2023 has made everything dramatically worse, destroying water treatment plants and cutting off tap water to hundreds of thousands of people.
How the Civil War Shattered Water Systems
When fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, water infrastructure became immediate collateral damage. Aerial bombardment and explosive ordnance destroyed water pipes and treatment plants across Khartoum, the capital and the country’s most populated city. Between mid-April and the end of May 2023 alone, more than 300,000 people in Khartoum lost access to tap water entirely. Service in areas that still had partial infrastructure became intermittent and unreliable.
The damage extends well beyond Khartoum. Fighting has displaced millions of people into camps and host communities that lack the infrastructure to support them. Humanitarian agencies use centralized water treatment in displacement settings, but even well-run refugee camps in the region have historically struggled to meet the minimum standard of 20 liters per person per day set by the Sphere humanitarian guidelines. The sheer scale of displacement in Sudan, one of the largest displacement crises in the world, has overwhelmed the capacity to deliver clean water where it’s needed most.
A Cholera Outbreak Fueled by Dirty Water
The collapse of water and sanitation systems has triggered exactly the kind of disease outbreak public health experts feared. Sudan’s Ministry of Health recorded a large cholera outbreak beginning on July 1, 2023. By the end of that initial wave, cumulative cases had reached 11,372, with 316 deaths. But the outbreak didn’t stop there. As displaced populations moved across the country, cholera spread to at least nine states, including Khartoum, Al Jezirah, Red Sea, and White Nile.
By October 2024, total cholera cases had climbed to 24,604, with 699 deaths and a case fatality rate of 2.8%. Of those deaths, 592 occurred in healthcare facilities, while 107 happened in the community, where people had no access to medical care at all. Laboratory testing confirmed cholera in all 41 samples analyzed by PCR, and rapid diagnostic tests showed a positivity rate of nearly 70%. These numbers almost certainly undercount the true toll, given how many areas are cut off from both healthcare and surveillance.
Uneven Access Across States
Even before the war, Sudan’s water access was deeply unequal. National averages mask stark regional differences. In Gadarif state, only 27.6% of households had basic water service. White Nile stood at 32.8%, and Red Sea at 33.2%. Blue Nile state had the worst water quality indicators in the country: less than 40% of its population had access to an improved water source, and just 0.5% had adequate water treatment as of 2010.
These were already crisis-level numbers in peacetime. The war has made accurate measurement nearly impossible in many areas, but the direction is clear: access has gotten worse, not better, in every conflict-affected state.
Climate Change and Shrinking Groundwater
Sudan sits in the Sahel belt, a semi-arid zone that has endured recurring droughts for decades. Climate change is intensifying this pattern. Rising temperatures are increasing evaporation rates, which reduces the water available for both domestic use and farming, particularly in northern Sudan. At the same time, recurrent droughts are decreasing groundwater recharge, meaning the underground aquifers that millions depend on are being depleted faster than they can refill.
Desertification is pushing the Sahara further south, degrading land that once supported agriculture and livestock. This creates a feedback loop: as surface water disappears and soil dries out, communities drill deeper wells or migrate to areas already under water stress, compounding the problem. Climate projections suggest this will worsen. The combination of more intense droughts and higher temperatures is expected to further reduce water availability across the country in the coming decades.
The Nile and Regional Tensions
Sudan’s largest irrigation systems depend on the Blue Nile, and the construction of Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has added a layer of geopolitical uncertainty to the water crisis. The Gezira scheme, the largest irrigation system in the world at 0.88 million hectares with 8,000 kilometers of canals, draws its water from the Blue Nile. So do the Rahad and El-Gunied schemes. Together, these irrigation networks form the backbone of Sudan’s food security.
Research has found that the GERD’s construction and filling led to a measurable decline in water use efficiency across these schemes. The Rahad scheme was hit hardest, with an estimated 3.9% reduction in cropping intensity attributed to the dam. Gezira saw a 1.5% reduction. In 87% of growing seasons examined, the Gezira scheme showed declining vegetation health, with an average reduction of 3.4%. While rainfall and temperature were the dominant factors at Gezira, the dam’s impact on Blue Nile water levels added measurable stress.
Sudan and Egypt have pushed back against what they call “unilateral actions” by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile, and the two downstream countries have coordinated their response. Ethiopia maintains the dam allows more controlled water flows over time and does not significantly harm downstream nations. The dispute remains unresolved, and unpredictable water releases from the dam have raised concerns about risks to Sudan’s Roseires Dam and its downstream irrigation infrastructure.
Food Security at Risk
Water scarcity is directly threatening Sudan’s ability to feed itself. Farmers in the Gezira and Rahad schemes have already stopped growing cotton, once the primary cash crop, due to a combination of rising costs, poor returns, and disease. They’ve shifted to food crops like sorghum, but these face their own challenges. Climate projections estimate that yields and water productivity for cotton and sorghum could decline by 40% and 29%, respectively, due to climate change and ineffective water management. Some research suggests that staple food crops like sorghum and wheat may eventually become unsustainable in these regions.
For a country where irrigation schemes are central to the economy, this trajectory is alarming. Less water means less food production, which means greater dependence on humanitarian aid at a time when that aid is severely underfunded.
A Massive Funding Gap
The humanitarian response to Sudan’s water crisis is drastically underfunded. As of mid-2025, UNICEF reported that emergency water, sanitation, and hygiene programs in Sudan were 87% unfunded. The broader humanitarian WASH cluster had received just $36.36 million of the $301 million needed, leaving a funding gap of nearly 88%. Even UNICEF’s own WASH program for Sudan had an 81% gap, with $162 million of its $200 million requirement unmet.
This means that for every dollar needed to provide clean water, treat sewage, and distribute hygiene supplies in Sudan, less than 13 cents has actually arrived. In practical terms, this translates to water treatment systems that can’t be repaired, chlorine supplies that run out, and displacement camps where waterborne disease spreads because there simply aren’t enough resources to prevent it.