This year, the winter in Algeria is particularly dry. Rainfall is at its lowest and the average filling rate of dams on the national territory barely reached 30%. That is to say that the threat of water stress is getting bigger and bigger!
President Tebboune’s plan A: generalize seawater desalination stations
To deal with this critical climatic situation, the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebbouneordered, this Sunday, January 8, during the meeting of the Council of Ministers, to “develop a plan for the generalization of seawater desalination stations all along the coastal strip.
Tebboune chairs the Council of Ministers of 8/1/2023.
“Today, we are able to make these stations with our own means “, he said, believing that” the combination of efforts will free Algeria from the problems of drinking water supply “.
To achieve this objective, A. Tebboune called for “continuing the development of the quality of training through partnerships with internationally renowned institutes and universities with a view to exchanging expertise in the field of seawater desalination”.
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Already in June 2022, President Tebboune affirmed, during a visit to the wilaya of Oran during which he had laid the first stone of the Cap Blanc station project, that the desalination of seawater constituted the safest solution to supply citizens with drinking water.
Preserving groundwater, the government’s other objective
President Tebboune lays the first stone of the Cap Blanc seawater desalination plant (Oran).
At the same meeting, A. Tebboune instructed to “mobilize the services of the Interior, Water Resources, Agriculture, Industry and the Environment with a view to setting up a water saving policy nationally and to preserve the country’s underground water wealth”.
This will involve, among other measures, “reviving and completing all the sewage treatment plant projects at the level of the various wilayas in order to use them in irrigation instead of groundwater”.
Still with a view to preserving underground water, the President of the Republic gave a series of instructions: (1) strictly control the operating permitsgroundwater for irrigation; (2) apply “heavy penalties” against unauthorized drillers ; (3) urgently carry out scientific studies to determine “with precision” the volume of groundwater.
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In addition, the Head of State instructed to activate the water police . Its mission will be to “monitor the fields of water use in all areas and to fight against waste all over the country”.
Finally, President Tebboune recalled the “need to create startups specializing in wastewater exploitation techniques “. The latter will work to develop technological solutions that fall within the framework of water saving and water security.
Seawater desalination station: how many are there in Algeria today?
Distribution of seawater desalination stations in Algeria (click to enlarge).
The Algerian coast currently has 21 resorts seawater desalination plant. These are distributed over 14 wilayascoastal. 7 other factoriesare under construction.
These 21 desalination plants provide, according to data from the Ministry of Water Resources, 17% of water consumedin the country. They feed 6 million people. Their volume amounts to 2.6 million m3/day.
In detail, here is the number of desalination stations in each of these 14 wilayas: Chlef (2, including 1 planned); Bejaia (1); Tlemcen (2); Tizi Ouzou (1); Algiers (6, including 1 planned); Jijel (1); Skikda (1); Mostaganem (1); Oran (5, including 1 planned); Boumerdès (3, including 2 planned); El Tarf (2, including 1 planned); Tipaza (4, including 1 planned); Ain Temouchent (2).
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Let us also recall that Algeria, with its 74 dams, occupies the first place in this field on the Maghreb and African scale. However, this capacity remains insufficient to meet the drinking water needs of Algerians given the drought that has been raging in the country for five years now.
