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HomeAfricaAlgeria/Incredible but True: After Satellite Dishes, Cisterns on the Facades of Buildings

Algeria/Incredible but True: After Satellite Dishes, Cisterns on the Facades of Buildings

Previously installed in balconies, often out of sight, these cisterns are increasingly being installed on the facade walls of buildings.

For lack of space inside the apartments which are devoid of specific places for this type of equipment which has become essential with the restrictions on the distribution of drinking water, the Algerians generally install these cisterns in the balconies when there are some. . But for some time now, a new way of laying cisterns has developed in Algerian cities.

Residents no longer hesitate to build metal supports to place their cisterns and glue them to the facade walls of buildings. The phenomenon is taking on a certain scale to the point of talking about it on social networks.

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A photo of a building with lots of superimposed cisterns is causing buzz on social networks. On the Annaba Al-Aan page, you can see cisterns of different shapes and colors placed on metal supports and connected to the apartments.

In the comments, Internet users are divided between those who condemn the process and those who justify the use of such a practice.

“If we had running water without cuts and we had room to put the cisterns we wouldn’t do that,” noted a commentator.

The observation made by this Internet user raises the problem of water supply in Algeria, which has been facing an  endemic drought  for several years.

What hides the use of the generalization of cisterns in Algeria

The unavailability of drinking water in the taps on a continuous basis as well as the frequent water cuts force the Algerians to install cisterns in their homes.

This problem of access to water is not taken into account in the design of buildings and apartments in Algeria.

Buildings are rarely equipped with water tanks to supply residents in the event of water cuts and no space is provided to accommodate individual cisterns. Apartments and buildings continue to be built without taking into account the reality on the ground.

Beyond water shortages, the proliferation of use of cisterns poses the problem of the solidity of the supports used. The installation of cisterns on metal supports outside apartments in places facing the street could expose passers-by and residents to dangers.

โ€œThe supports built to house the cisterns must be well made so that they do not give way under the weight of the water over time. A 1000 liter tank, which weighs a ton, if it falls from several floors, is necessarily a danger for passers-byโ€, explains a civil engineer.

Regarding the point of view of urban aesthetics, the engineer in question deplores the neglect of this aspect in Algeria. โ€œWe are not demanding enough. The buildings are made in such a way as to contain what is necessary without thinking about town planning,โ€ he regrets.

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