Off the wire
• UN Security Council condemns attacks on medical personnel in violent conflict  • Economic climate in euro area continues to fall: thinktank  • Suspect hijacks Metrobus in Washington D.C., fatally strikes pedestrian  • Tusk calls for global awareness on migration, refugee crisis  • Tanzania secures 268 mln USD for Lake Victoria-Tabora water project  • Crocodile kills teenager in southern Tanzania  • Spanish stock market falls 2.85 pct  • Roundup: IMF calls for stronger response to Africa's declining economic growth  • UN chief welcomes launch of UN inspection to facilitate flow of goods to Yemen  • Coal mine gas blast kills 6 in SW China  
You are here: 　 Home

Heat wave hits Sudan's capital Khartoum

Xinhua, May 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Sudanese authorities on Tuesday issued a warning against a heat wave that hit the capital Khartoum with temperature above 43 degrees Celsius.

The Meteorological Authority in Khartoum issued a warning for the citizens against exposure to sun rays.

The authority further reiterated that the temperature in the Sudanese capital Khartoum registered 43 degrees on Monday afternoon and 31 degrees on Tuesday morning.

The authority's spokesman Nour Al-Balad Mahmoud said the current May and coming June are the months with the highest temperature in Sudan as the sun rays are perpendicular to the Tropic of Cancer and thus to Sudan region.

He stressed the importance for the citizens not to be exposed to sun rays during those periods to avoid sun strokes, urging the citizens to work to reduce the temperature by wearing light color dresses, using umbrellas and drinking enough water for the safety of their health.

He recommended that children must put on their shoes and be avoided of crowded places, urging for running the cooling machines and ventilators in public transport vehicles.

The heat wave coincides with repeated power cuts in most areas of Khartoum at a time when the electricity authorities said the power cuts were programmed due to shortage in electricity generating.

According to the Sudanese Ministry of Electricity and Dams, the country's need of electricity is estimated at about 800 megawatts, while what is currently available is only 500 megawatts.

In December of last year, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) warned that Sudan would face an electricity production problem in the future, if it does not establish alternative projects which take into account decreased rainfall and increased consumption.

Access to electricity is available to 35 percent of Sudan's population whilst over 25 million people have not yet been connected to the national electricity grid, according to the UNDP.

Earlier, the Sudanese ministry of electricity announced that it faced a deficit of five percent in electricity supply during peak hours, and that generated electricity by Sudan's biggest dam, Merowe Dam, was insufficient for consumption by the capital Khartoum alone, even if it operated at the maximum capacity of 1,250 megawatts.

Sudan aims to complete construction of the dams of Upper Atbara and Setait in eastern Sudan so as to increase the national electricity network by 320 megawatts, if, as scheduled, inaugurated by early next year. Endit