Saad Kassis-Mohamed Center Commits 100,000 Litres to Restore the Nile at Khartoum

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MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS

Saad Kassis-Mohamed Center Commits 100,000 Litres to Restore the Nile at Khartoum

Khartoum | June 2026

The Saad Kassis-Mohamed Center today announces a commitment to fund the removal of 100,000 litres of plastic waste and waterborne debris from the River Nile at Khartoum, as part of the Center’s one-million-litre global conservation campaign. Khartoum sits at the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile — the point at which the world’s longest river is formed before it continues north through Egypt and into the Mediterranean Sea. The plastic and waste entering the Nile at Khartoum travels the length of the river’s course. A growing body of research confirms that this waste is now present in the fish that communities along the Nile depend upon for food, and that the city’s wastewater treatment infrastructure is no longer adequate to the scale of the waste it must process. The Center’s commitment is a contribution to a river that sustains communities across eleven countries — and a recognition that the health of the Nile at its point of formation has consequences for its entire course.

Khartoum sits at Al-Mogran, the point where the Blue Nile, flowing from the Ethiopian highlands, and the White Nile, flowing from the Great Lakes region of East Africa, meet to form the River Nile proper. From this point, the Nile continues north through Sudan and Egypt, passing through Cairo before reaching the Mediterranean Sea via the Nile Delta. Research has confirmed that 65 per cent of plastic waste generated in Khartoum is disposed of in open dumps, from where it enters the water bodies that feed into the Nile. Khartoum’s three wastewater treatment plants — at Karary, Wad Daffiaa, and Soba — are outdated and do not meet local or international treatment standards, meaning that untreated domestic, industrial, and agricultural effluent enters the river alongside solid plastic waste. Khartoum has been identified as one of 29 critical marine plastic pollution hotspots across the urbanised areas of the Nile basin, alongside cities including Kampala, Mwanza, and Bujumbura.

The consequences of this contamination have entered the food chain. A study examining tilapia caught at Al-Mogran — the confluence point itself — and sold at the Al-Mawrada fish market in Omdurman, immediately adjacent to the Nile, confirmed the presence of microplastics within the fish tissue. Tilapia is among the most widely consumed fish in Sudan, and the Al-Mawrada market serves communities throughout greater Khartoum. The presence of microplastics in fish caught at the point where the Nile is formed has direct implications for human health throughout the river’s downstream course, as microplastics and the chemical compounds associated with them are absorbed into the bloodstream when contaminated fish are consumed. Research across the wider Nile basin has confirmed that rivers in the basin are estimated to export tens of thousands of tonnes of plastic to the sea annually, more than 80 per cent of which is microplastic — with consequences for biodiversity and the climate that extend across the entire basin.

Khartoum generates approximately 1.53 kilograms of solid waste per person each day, and in Khartoum state, an estimated 37 per cent of all generated waste is left uncollected and disposed of illegally. With Khartoum’s population estimated at close to six million people, this represents an enormous and growing volume of waste with no managed pathway to disposal — much of which reaches the river during seasonal flooding and through informal drainage channels. The Nile at Khartoum is not a peripheral concern. It is the point of formation for a river that sustains hundreds of millions of people across eleven countries, and the condition of the river at this point shapes its condition for the entirety of its course to the Mediterranean. The Center’s commitment of 100,000 litres is directed at this point of origin, in recognition that action here has consequences for the river’s entire length.

Saad Kassis-Mohamed, Chairman of the Saad Kassis-Mohamed Center, stated: “The Nile is formed at Khartoum. Everything that enters the river at that point travels the length of Africa’s longest waterway, through Sudan and Egypt, to the Mediterranean Sea. Scientists have found microplastics in the tilapia caught at the exact spot where the Blue Nile and White Nile meet — fish that are sold at the market next to the river and eaten by the families of Khartoum. Sixty-five per cent of the city’s plastic waste goes into open dumps. The wastewater treatment plants were not built for a city of this size. None of this is abstract. It is in the fish on the table. The Center commits 100,000 litres to the Nile at Khartoum because a river that begins here and reaches the sea carries everything we do not address at its source.”

“The Nile is formed at Khartoum, where the Blue Nile and White Nile meet. Sixty-five per cent of the city’s plastic waste enters open dumps and from there the water system. Microplastics have been confirmed in tilapia caught at the confluence point and sold in markets along the river. The city’s wastewater treatment plants no longer meet the standards required for its population. Everything that enters the Nile here travels to the Mediterranean. The Saad Kassis-Mohamed Center’s commitment of 100,000 litres is directed at the point of origin of a river that sustains hundreds of millions of people across eleven countries.”

Saad Kassis-Mohamed, Chairman, Saad Kassis-Mohamed Center

The Saad Kassis-Mohamed Center calls on the international community, including the United Nations Environment Programme and all organisations engaged in supporting Sudan’s civilian population, to treat the management of solid waste and wastewater treatment infrastructure in Khartoum as a public health priority, recognising the documented presence of microplastics in fish consumed by local communities; to support the rehabilitation and expansion of wastewater treatment capacity in Khartoum state to meet the needs of its population; to fund continued scientific monitoring of microplastic contamination in fish and water along the Nile at Khartoum, in order to provide the evidence base required for targeted public health guidance and remediation; and to recognise that the condition of the Nile at its point of formation has consequences for the health of the river, and the communities that depend on it, across its entire course to the Mediterranean Sea.

The Saad Kassis-Mohamed Center is an initiative of the WeCare Foundation, Cape Town, active across Africa, South Asia, the Gulf region, and beyond. The Center works to protect the rights and welfare of individuals and communities facing environmental injustice, denial of rights, and institutional failure, and engages directly with United Nations mechanisms to advocate on their behalf. For more information, visit wcrfoundation.com