The Merowe Dam, presently under construction 800 km downstream of Khartoum on the Nile River in
Sudan, will submerge the fourth cataract of the Nile and form a 200 km long artificial lake. With
a surface area of 800 km2, the lake will inundate 55 km2 of irrigated land and 11 km2 of farmland
used for flood recession agriculture. Merowe represents the current largest hydropower project in
Africa. The main purpose of the 67 m high Merowe Dam is hydropower production. The capacity of
1’250 MW will be almost twice the current hydropower capacity in Sudan. The project includes an
irrigation
component but there are still uncertainties as to whether it will be implemented.