Sudan Environment - 2024

Environment - current issues

water pollution; inadequate supplies of potable water; water scarcity and periodic drought; wildlife populations threatened by excessive hunting; soil erosion; desertification; deforestation; loss of biodiversity

Environment - international agreements

party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Climate

hot and dry; arid desert; rainy season varies by region (April to November)

Land use

agricultural land: 100% (2018 est.)

arable land: 15.7% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 0.2% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 84.2% (2018 est.)

forest: 0% (2018 est.)

other: 0% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 36.3% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 3.43% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

Food insecurity

severe localized food insecurity:due to conflict, civil insecurity, and soaring food prices - according to the results of the latest analysis, about 11.7 million people (24% of the analyzed population) are estimated to be severely food insecure during June to September 2022; the main drivers are macroeconomic challenges resulting in rampant food and non‑food inflation, tight supplies due to a poor 2021 harvest and the escalation of intercommunal violence (2022)

Revenue from forest resources

3.01% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

0% of GDP (2018 est.)

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 21.43 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 20 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 75.1 megatons (2020 est.)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 2,831,291 tons (2015 est.)

Major rivers (by length in km)

An Nīl (Nile) (shared with Rwanda [s], Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, and Egypt [m]) - 6,650 km; Blue Nile river mouth (shared with Ethiopia [s]) - 1,600 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Major watersheds (area sq km)

Atlantic Ocean drainage: (Mediterranean Sea) Nile (3,254,853 sq km)
Internal (endorheic basin) drainage: Lake Chad (2,497,738 sq km)

Major aquifers

Nubian Aquifer System, Sudd Basin (Umm Ruwaba Aquifer)

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 950 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

industrial: 80 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

agricultural: 25.91 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

Total renewable water resources

37.8 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)