Transboundary sediment transfer from source to sink using a mineralogical analysis. Case study: Roseires Reservoir, Blue Nile, Sudan

ABSTRACT

Sediment accumulation hampers optimal water resources management of reservoirs. In the Roseires Reservoir across the Blue Nile River, in Sudan, about 30% of the storage capacity has been lost by sedimentation before dam heightening (2012), despite regular sediment sluicing and flushing. At the same time, increasing soil erosion in the upper river basin in Ethiopia is significantly reducing land productivity.

KEYWORDS:

• Sediment transfer
• Blue Nile Basin
• mineralogy
• X-ray diffraction
• source
• sink

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Ministry of Water Resources and Electricity, Hydraulic Research Station, Wad Madani, and the Dam Implementation Unit, Khartoum, Sudan, for providing data free of charge. The authors wish to thank Mohamed Osman and Yasir Abo ElGasim for their helpful support during the field work. The authors also acknowledge the Ministry of Water Resources in Ethiopia and ENTRO for the help provided during the field campaign in the upper basin.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The study was carried out as a project within a larger research program called ‘In search of sustainable catchments and basin-wide solidarities in the Blue Nile River Basin’, funded by the Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research (WOTRO) of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), Lutfia Rabbani Foundation and UNESCO-IHE.