"Wad Madani" a Wad Madani Travel Page by uglyscot

The Gezira refers to the area between the Blue and The White Nile south of Khartoum. It is a large fertile plain of clay soil. It was divided into small farms under the Sudan Gezira Scheme when the country was under British administration. A system of canals crosses the plain.
The main crops are cotton, sorghum, ground nuts, wheat and vegetables.
The chief town of the area is Wad Medani It was an important urban centre from the time of the Turkish Era
When the Sudan Gezira Scheme was founded by the British in the 1920s, it became the capital of the region, and now has city status..The Ministry of Irrigation and the Agricultural research Institute have their headquarters here too.

Like Khartoum, Wad Medani has also grown in the past few years. Unfortunately this trip we were not able to go into the centre, but could see new buildings have been constructed, and new better houses built in the suburbs.
As a city, it has all amenities. From quite early on it has been an educational centre with some of the more famous secondary schools like Hantoub , and Wad Medani Girls' school. It also has one of the older universities in the country [Gezira University].
Unfortunately the old colonial houses are now behind walls and their gardens have suffered from drought. The whole area has an air of neglect and there has been talk of destroying the area and building modern structures.