Since the abundant rains of last autumn, Algeria faces a winter more destitute in precipitation. A situation that worries specialists, one of whom has just sounded the alarm.
“If it continues like this for 15 days to a month, it’s really the greatest danger, we have to prepare for all eventualities, particularly for agriculture,” said in an alarming tone Brahim Mouhouche, professor at the Higher School of Agronomy (ESA), in Algiers.
Invited this Thursday from Algerian Radio, he almost cried out from the heart: “We are in danger. We are among the poorest countries from the point of view of water potential”.
“For the northern region of the country, we are currently in the red. The last rains (particularly last October) exceeded the average in precipitation. Today, we have exceeded, this time in the negative sense, what we needed to have as water for the installation of crops, ” warned the specialist.
“The dams will never be full”
The low rainfall has been going on for a few years already in Algeria. According to Professor Mouhouche, this was felt in the reduction in the filling volumes of dams. He estimates that the fill rate is currently 37%.
“The dams will never be full”, even if there will be rains during the spring, warned the expert. Professor Mouhouche nevertheless specifies that the average of 37% is national, the rates varying between the different regions. Thus, if the eastern regions of the country are doing rather well with occupancy rates between 65 and 70%, the western region of the country is much worse off with a 21% occupancy rate, explained the guest of the radio.
To hear Professor Brahim Mouhouche, Algerians should get used to the idea of living with very little water. “We are a poor country from the point of view of the water. We will have to live with this reality and cast a wide net using all the existing water resources in Algeria,” he recommended.
While pointing out that there are a number of resources that are not used, the expert points to the problem of water waste. “People do not control what they should consume in water, neither in cooking nor in industry or in agriculture,” he asserted.
To illustrate this chronic water deficiency, Brahim Mouhouche explains that the Algerian only receives, in fine, only 300 m3, whereas the world average is 6,000 m3 per inhabitant.
The agricultural expert notes that the southern regions of the country are full of water which, according to him, will have to be used and developed, in particular by transfers from the south to the Hauts-Plateaux.
The other option to which Algeria must now inevitably resolve consists of accelerating the process of desalination of seawater. “It is indisputable”, considers Brahim Mouhouche citing the case of Saudi Arabia which this process for four decades.
“With 1,200 km of coastline and 14 coastal wilayas, Algeria must highlight this potential, which is our last salvation until there are other technologies”, he says.
The specialist points out, however, that the desalination process requires large financial and material resources.
Professor Mouhouche highlights the repercussions of low rainfall on agricultural yield. Thus, according to him, the current harvest program “is already compromised”, but ” not 100% “, he qualified. ” The installation of our crops was done in difficult conditions”, explained the expert who hopes that the rains ” will not be long”.