Editing Transport in Sudan (section)

==Inland waterways ==
The [[Nile|Nile River]], traversing Sudan from south to north, provides an important inland transportation route.<ref name="loc2015" /> Its overall usefulness, however, has been limited by natural features, including a number of [[Cataracts of the Nile|cataracts]] in the main Nile between Khartoum and the Egyptian border.<ref name="loc2015" /> The White Nile to the south of Khartoum has shallow stretches that restrict the carrying capacities of barges, especially during the annual period of low water, and the river has sharp bends.<ref name="loc2015" /> Most of these impediments were eliminated by [[Chevron Corporation|Chevron]], which as part of its oil exploration and development program dredged the [[White Nile]] [[shoal]]s and established navigational beacons from [[Kosti, Sudan|Kosti]] to [[Bentiu]].<ref name="loc2015" /> Manmade features such as the growing number of dams also restricts use of the river.<ref name="loc2015" />
[[File:Transportation in Sudan in the northern state.jpg|thumb]]
As of 2011 (before the secession of South Sudan), Sudan had 4,068 kilometers of navigable rivers overall, but only 1,723 kilometers were open throughout the year, making river transport minimal.<ref name="loc2015" /> The most important route used to be the 1,436-kilometer stretch of the White Nile from Kosti to [[Juba]] (known as the Southern Reach), which provided the only generally usable transport connection between the central and southern parts of the country.<ref name="loc2015" /> Such river traffic ended in 1984 when the SPLA regularly sank the scheduled steamers, but it began to recover following the signing of the CPA in 2005.<ref name="loc2015" />

Transport services also ran at one time on tributaries of the White Nile (the [[Bahr el Ghazal River|Bahr al-Ghazal]] and the [[Jur River]]) to the west of [[Malakal]].<ref name="loc2015" /> These services went as far as [[Wau, South Sudan|Wau]] but were seasonal, dependent on water levels.<ref name="loc2015" /> They were discontinued during the 1970s because vegetation blocked the waterways, particularly the fast-growing [[Eichhornia crassipes|water hyacinth]].<ref name="loc2015" /> In early 2003, a tributary of the White Nile east of Malakal, known as the [[Sobat River]] Corridor, reopened, improving the distribution of food aid in the region.<ref name="loc2015" /> On the main Nile, a 287-kilometer stretch from [[Kuraymah]] to [[Dongola]], situated between the fourth and third cataracts and known as the [[Dongola Reach]], also has regular service, except during the low-water period in February and March.<ref name="loc2015" /> Since 1981 the government has tried to remedy past neglect and requested foreign assistance to dredge the rivers, improve the quays, and provide navigation aids.<ref name="loc2015" />

The [[River Transport Corporation]] (RTC) operated as a parastatal from 1973 until 2007 when two private companies, the [[Nile River Transport Corporation]] and the [[Sudan River Transport Corporation]], took it over.<ref name="loc2015" /> Before that, the latter companies were run by the [[Sudan Railways Corporation]] essentially as feeders to the rail line.<ref name="loc2015" /> Another parastatal, the joint [[Sudanese-Egyptian River Navigation Corporation]], operated services between [[Wadi Halfa]] and [[Aswan]], but service often was disrupted by political tension between Egypt and Sudan.<ref name="loc2015" /> Since the privatization of the RTC, other private operators started providing services.<ref name="loc2015" /> There were six private companies operating river vessels in 2009.<ref name="loc2015" />

The government began in 2003 to expand the [[Sea Ports Corporation, Sudan|Sea Ports Corporation]] in order for it to manage river services and river-navigation studies to qualify three new ports at Malakal, Juba, and [[Al-Renk]].<ref name="loc2015" /> In 2006 a [[Kuwait]]i group signed a preliminary agreement to redevelop the port of Juba on the White Nile.<ref name="loc2015" />

River cargo and passenger traffic varies from year to year, depending in large part on the availability and capacity of transport vessels.<ref name="loc2015" /> During the 1970s, roughly 100,000 tonnes of cargo and 250,000 passengers were carried annually.<ref name="loc2015" /> However, the closing of the Southern Reach in 1984 made river traffic insignificant.<ref name="loc2015" /> Cargo had declined to fewer than 44,000 tonnes and passengers to fewer than 5,000 per year by the early 2000s, but by 2010, inland waterways transported 114,000 tonnes and 13,000 passengers despite rapids, cataracts, a growing number of dams, and seasonal variations in water levels that continued to hinder river traffic.<ref name="loc2015" />