Refurbishment work is planned at the Sennar dam in Sudan, and Preussag Noel has again won a contract for# the work. The company, through its subsidiary Noel Stahl und Maschinenbau, carried out a previous renovation contract at the dam between 1993 and 1996.
The Sennar dam, which was completed in 1925, is owned by the Ministry of Irrigation in Khartoum. The water it provides irrigates the entire Gazira region between the White and Blue Niles.
In the 1993-96 project the main dam was repaired, in a contract worth some DM20M (US$10.9M) that included the supply of 80 bottom outlet gates, renovation of some emergency gates and supply of ten new emergency gates.
In this new contract, worth DM6M (US$3.3M) the two irrigation channels and the 25 bottom outlet gates will be renovated.
In the first phase of the contract, expected to take around 18 months, the structures will be inspected. A schedule for renovation will then be developed in consultation with the Ministry of Irrigation. The sche##dule is likely to be tight: the area that the dam irrigates is mostly used for cotton-growing, which is Sudan’s main source of foreign exchange.