Community Adaptation to Impacts of Big Dams and Water Harvesting at the Red Sea State (Arba’at and Sinkat Areas)

Two locations within Port Sudan state, eastern Sudan, were selected, these were: Arbaat and Sinkat as to represent two different geographical sites and communities, a semi-structured questionnaire was designed for the purpose of the study. Sampling of respondents was done according to a certain formula utilizing numbers of villages and households at each village. SPSS (version 16) and Chi-square were used for data analysis. The results showed that the area is characterized by high temperature (~42°C) and fluctuating rain-fall (150 - 0mm), satellite images showed that for both areas vegetation cover reduced during 10 years and was more evident in Sinkat than Araba’at. Perception of natural resources was acknowledged. Rate of vegetation regeneration within the normal year was rated as fast at both areas. Wild life availability was perceived as increasing. Soil deterioration was related to wind by most participants but less due to water with significant associations (P=0.00) between the respondents’ opinion at both areas. Most farmers at both areas were small scale with 5 feddans ownership but higher in Sinkat (88%) than Ara’at (68%). Significant (P = 0.00) association were obtained farmers’ tenure and the two areas. Most felt the importance of the water harvesting programs, the association in perceptions between the two sites was significant (P = 0.000). Most of the problems came from water pollution from different sources at both areas (90%) Other problems were due to hafir and dam siltation as expressed by most of the respondents at both areas (95%), the associations of the respondents’ opinion between the two areas were significant (P= 0.00). There were also bore holes management problems at both sites as expressed by respondents at Arba’at (79%) and Sinkat (80%). Most (~90%) of the respondents thought that over exploitation of water resources was one of the main problem that existed at both areas. Significant associations in the respondents’ opinion could be detected for dam and hafir siltation (P=.861), bore holes and water over exploitation (P=0.516). Adaptation to natural resources deterioration was through diversification of income as water and charcoal selling. Coping with food insecurity during the dry season was done through reduction in number of meals, sources of proteins and carbohydrates. Malnutrition rate was the highest in children followed by women and elderly, the same results were obtained for the rate of death and diseases with strong (P = 0.000) association in participants’ perception between the two sites.