While President Tebboune has asked the government to take measures to combat the water crisis, the rains that have affected Algeria for a week are experiencing relief.
“The amount of snow in our stories is greater than that which fell on the reliefs. This sarcastic post from an Internet user sums up the excitement of Algerians after the return of rain at the end of January and, above all, snow at all heights exceeding 1,000 meters in the regions of the north and 600 meters in the center.
The National Meteorological Office (ONM) had announced for the whole week “considerable rain and snowfall” in the north of the country, “result of a series of atmospheric disturbances marked by a drop in pressure resulting in a wave of cold “.
Once the first snowflakes fell, tourist agencies began to offer outings to the mountains of Chréa (southwest of Algiers) and Tikdjda (east of the capital).
“The Chréa park was crowded! It took us hours to get out because of traffic jams but it was worth leaving,” Yamina, an Algerian mother of two, told Middle East Eye. “We finally felt the winter mood after a long summer.”
In Constantine, which also benefited from its snow quota, other families defied the cold to enjoy the snow.
“The happiness was palpable, especially among the children,” Insaf, a young girl from Constantine, told MEE. “To see the bridges of Constantine covered in white is a pleasure for the eyes but also a relief.”
A new water-saving policy
At the beginning of January, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called for the relaunch of projects to shut down treatment plants for the reuse of wastewater for irrigation, to generalize seawater desalination plants along the entire coast and mobilized the ministries concerned (Water Resources, Industry, Environment, Agriculture, Interior) to implement a new water-saving policy.
“My 85-year-old mother greeted the snow with dinghies,” journalist Djamel Alilat wrote on Facebook after the first snowflakes fell on the Kabylie mountains.
“It’s a spontaneous reflex to show joy. We have been suffering from drought for so long. It’s like welcoming someone back from a long exile! “, explains Djamel, contacted by MEE.
“In recent years, this drought and these climatic changes have created anxiety among people. As if a new disease had appeared, ”he continues. “I can assure you that the feeling of happiness is almost general, especially among farmers. Today, everyone pays attention to weather reports.”
This is confirmed by Yahia, a student living in the Algiers suburbs.
“Now I follow the weather reports every day, which I didn’t do before. In Algiers, we are directly impacted by this water stress since the running water is cut off for several hours a day. I hope this rain will raise the water level in the dams and put an end to this ordeal. »
In December, the ONM said that it was forecast to rain as much or more than usual during the winter in the north of the country.
“Extreme phenomena, accentuated by climate change, will undoubtedly mark the daily lives of Algerians in the future”, however, qualified Salah Sahabi-Abed, director of meteorological exploitation and climatology at the ONM. “Studies carried out in this direction show that future climate scenarios sometimes highlight intense rains of short duration, sometimes periods of prolonged drought. »
