Oil, power and a sign of hope. Klaus Stieglitz
12, 2008 from Raga to Leer, which is where we set up our new camp. It serves as our base for our research into the source of the contamination of water. On our day of arrival, we travel from Leer to Adok, which is a port on the Nile. It is a transport node. It joins the roads coming from the oil fields with the waterway to the north. An excellently-maintained (at least until Bentiu), all-weather gravel road links Adok to Bentiu, the capital of Sudan’s Unity state. This road makes the oil fields easily accessible. The previous residents of the area have had to pay a high price for the building of this road. Lundin Oil is based in Sweden. In 2000, the company was undertaking sample drilling in the region. Lundin Oil lodged at the time a complaint with the Khartoum regime: the bad roads found in its region of concession would cause delays in its operations. Conducted during the dry season, the next campaigns waged by the regime’s troops were against the population in the area. Their settlements stood in the way of the construction of the road. The region was thus efficaciously “cleansed” for this purpose. Tens of thousands of people were either killed or forced to flee. Their villages were destroyed.20 In 2003, Human Rights Watch submitted a nearly 600 page report on the relationships among these events, and on the causes of the civil war in Sudan.21 Our enjoyment of this road—after all the bumpy trails that we had been forced to endure—and of the speed it enabled thus gave us a strange feeling.
We proceed on the following morning along the road to the Thar Jath oil field, in which the contamination of the environment was said to exist. We travel northwards down the broad road, enjoying the overwhelming views of absolutely unspoiled nature. The area on whose edge we are now traversing is one of the world’s largest contiguous wetlands. The Nile’s dividing itself into rivulets whose currents are scarcely perceptible has created a huge delta. With its actual size depending on the amounts of rainfall and of water conveyed from the lake serving as the source of the Nile, these wetlands—the “Sudd”—covers an area of up to 5.7 million hectares. This is the size of Belgium. During the dry season, herders let their large herds of cattle and goats graze in the meter-high grass growing on the fertile ground. The diversity of fauna existing in this gigantic habitat of marsh and flood plain has been compared by experts to that of the Serengeti.22 Birds decked out in the brightest colors imaginable accompany us on our way. A bald eagle perches directly on the road. Species of birds unknown to us—each more colorful than the one previously—join a lizard about a meter long that is lying bored in the blindingly hot sun in imparting an interesting impression of the diversity found in the region.
In conjunction with the international Ramsar Convention,23 the Sudd was incorporated on World Environment Day into the list of wetlands of worldwide importance.24 This made the Sudd the second habitat in Sudan to be accorded this honor, which was conferred in an official ceremony staged in Khartoum. This honor was due to the exceptional importance of these wetlands, which are the fourth largest in the world. The Sudd fulfills all of the criteria foreseen for being conferred such a classification. These criteria are laid down in the Ramsar Convention.25 The awarding of the status of being a protected area—as narrowly defined—does not, however, ensue from this incorporation. The Sudd’s protection is the responsibility of the Sudanese government, which is now called upon to create an appropriate body of rules and control mechanisms.26
The Sudd is gigantic. It is comprised of a variety of ecosystems, with these including open water and its underwater vegetation; floating vegetation found on the edges of expanses of water; classic marshes; woods flooded on a seasonal basis; grass hollows irrigated by rain and by floods; meadows; and bush brush. The Sudd is the winter home of species of birds whose protection is of both regional and of international importance. They include the white pelican, whose wings can attain a span of up to 3.6 meters, white storks, crowned cranes and sea swallows. The wetlands are full of plants, fish, birds and mammals. The latter include the endangered Mongalla gazelle, the eland, the African elephant, and the shoe bill stork. Giant herds of peripatetic mammals subsist upon the grass growing in the wetlands during the dry season.27
Recently-compiled scientific studies help get a grasp of the biodiversity found in this region. In 2007, the regime in Southern Sudan and the USA-based Wildlife Conservation Society jointly published and presented at inventory—the first compiled in 25 years—of the biodiversity found in Southern Sudan. One of the American researchers involved reported that his first encounter with this richness of flora and flora left him rubbing his eyes.28 “I thought I was hallucinating,” he told the New York Times.29 The researchers’ counts were extrapolated to yield a total of nearly 1.5 million gazelles and antelopes. Among the latter: healthy populations of white-eared kobs, which are found only in this region and in Uganda. The researchers took to the air to observe closely-packed herds of animals covering an expanse of 80 kilometers in length and 50 kilometers in breadth.30 Sighted in the region were even the oryx antelopes, which had been regarded as being extinct in this area, along with herds of elephants, giraffes, lions and leopards.31 Crocodiles and hippopotamuses throng the region’s lagoons and lakes.32
The civil wars in Mozambique and Angola allowed poachers to all but wipe out the wild animals. The researchers thus approached their expedition to Sudan with grave trepidations.33 The animal population found in northwestern area of Southern Sudan turned out in fact to have been ravaged by poachers. This was also the case in Boma national park, which is located in the southeast of the area. The gigantic herds of buffaloes and zebras had been completely decimated.34 Reports were received on a frequent basis of the Jajanweed’s slaughtering of entire herds of elephants—for their ivory—found in neighboring countries.35 The Sudd is impassible. And that obviously hindered the region’s penetration by poachers. The swamp became the shield protecting the animals of Southern Sudan.36
The roads leading to the oil fields intersect the animals’ traditional paths of migration. This was a concern of the nature protectors. It took seemingly a miracle to protect the animals from destruction during the war. The animals saved by this miracle are now threatened with being the victims of the post-war era. The Sudd serves another purpose. It makes the region absolutely indispensable. Viewed hydrologically, the Sudd is a huge filter that monitors and normalizes the quality of the water passing through it. The Sudd is like a huge sponge. It thus stabilizes the water’s flowage. The wetlands are the main source of the water needed by humans and animals. It is also a rich source of fish. The Sudd’s inhabitants belong mostly to the Dinka, Nuer and Shilluk ethnic groups. Their lives, livelihoods and cultural activities are completely dominated by the seasons, and particularly by the alternating between dry and wet weather. The rainy season enables the recovery of the meadows on which the cattle graze. The local people leave their homes upon the commencement on the dry season. These homes are located in the highlands. They and their livestock migrate to the lowlands.
The beginning of the rainy season, which generally comes in May or June, causes them to return to their villages.37 One of the reasons for the civil war between north and south’s breaking out once more was the plan to dry out the Sudd. This would have been done through the building of a canal. It would have enabled the Nile’s water to flow to the north.38 This would have stripped the south’s people of the wellspring of their lives. It was as early as 2006 that the exploitation of oil reserves was recognized to be a threat to this unique ecosystem. The pumping of oil was launched for the first time in the same year. Has this peril in fact become—so very quickly—a reality? We are going to look at the mater in depth.
The first evidence of the change takes the form of the rusted signs placed on the side of the road. They indicate the presence of oil fields. The next sight is—fully unexpectedly—the appearance of high voltage lines. We pass every more frequently oil pumps protected by rings of barbed wire. We are now in the middle of the Thar Jath oil fields. And suddenly, from out of nowhere, six smokestacks appear in front of us. Each has a pattern of red and white rings. They form part of the refinery whose construction has been completed a couple of months previously. The refinery has been commissioned a few weeks earlier. Issuing from two of the stacks are dark clouds of pollutants. The unpainted metal expanses found on pipes, tanks and buildings reflect the blinding sunlight. The facility is fenced in. The watchtowers placed on the corners are scary.
We drive past the facility. Six and a half kilometers down the road is Rier, where we meet with lots of