The heightening of the Roseires dam in Blue Nile, in the northern government-controlled part of the border state, has drowned 17 villages which were not supposed to be affected by the project.

For months now villagers have been evacuated from villages around the expanding dam reservoir, sometimes prompting protests, demands for compensation of lost properties, and violent clashes with authorities.

A member of parliament in the national legislature, Ibrahim Bahr Al Din Abdullah, said in Khartoum on Wednesday that the administration of dams had not calculated for these 17 villages to be among the areas affected.

Abdullah, who represents a constituency in Blue Nile state, called for an immediate investigation into the drowning of the 17 villages on the banks of the Roseires dam reservoir. He also called for the government to compensate those who have been affected.

The project to heighten the dam will raise the reservoir water level by 10 meters and increase the design storage capacity of the dam from 3 billion meters cubed to 7.4 meters cubed, according to the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, which provided a loan to cover about 40% of the total project cost.