Attachments
Executive Summary and Recommendations
A 4 week visit took place in Sudan in order to assess a number of existing solar pumping schemes, evaluate the feasibility to solarize new water points in a few selected IDP camps and host communities, and raise awareness and solar technical expertise among WASH stakeholders in the country.
Due to delayed travel permits, only 4 IDP camps were visited in North and South Darfur. Selection of visited sites was determined by the presence of solar schemes or high yielding boreholes not solarized and security and logistic constraints.
In total 22 high yielding boreholes were assessed, with 19 running on diesel generators at the moment of the visit and 3 solarized for which there were either not enough data available to do a study or were not functioning. The impossibility to get travel permits on time and the numerous procedures to be followed while in the field, cut short visit to other camps in Darfur and stopped the visit to Easter Sudan. Therefore there might be more boreholes (both solarized and generator based) within the areas visited. However it is believed that the conclusions of current report could apply to several other areas.
Climatological and hydrogeological conditions in the sites visited were favorable, making the use of solar pumping a technically feasible solution for each and every of the boreholes assessed.
Decreasing trend of solar product prices, no taxation of imported solar panels, technical expertise available at private sector level in Khartoum, support from Sudan Water Ministry and other international organizations of solar pumping in their strategic plans/ policy frameworks and the wider support and priorization given by some donors to solar solutions in Sudan, together with an exceptionally high solar radiation through the year in most of the country make the context in principle good to use of solar pumping in the areas visited and beyond.