AIN DEFLA- Nine dams are planned to be put into operation by 2019 through the national territory, Water Resource and Environment Minister Abdelkader Ouali announced Tuesday in Aïn Defla.
5 among them will be commissioned during 2017, the visiting minister said while inspecting the Ouled Melouk Dam (commune of Rouina).
Up to 80 regions across the country have been identified as needing the construction of dams, given the poor rainfalls recorded there, he added.
For the minister, these efforts demonstrate the interest of the country’s senior authorities to the water resource sector, necessary for “several industries namely agriculture, industry and tourism.”
“Given its location in an arid zone, Algeria encounters issues of climate change causing irregular rainfalls,” he said, stressing that a period of drought is “never excluded in the future.”
Stressing the latest rainfalls has been “extremely beneficial,” Ouali said that the dams are filled at 70% nationwide, noting that this rate will improve with the melting of snow and forecast rains during the first half of 2017.
“20 dams are filled at 90% while the filling rate of 47 others exceeded 50%,” he said.
“In less than three months, our dams received additional amount of water of over one billion m3,” said the minister, indicating that the total quantity of stored water is 4.75 billion m3 countrywide.
Source: Nine dams to be put into operation by 2019
