Water resources: 3 billion 800 million m ³ ... and we are thirsty!

Algiers- The national reserves of drinking water this year are estimated at three billion five hundred million cubic meters against one billion seven hundred million cubic meters last year.

• • According to the Ministry of Water Resources, the quantity of groundwater declines because of the heat.
  • The Ministry accuses Sonelgaz of being responsible for the water crisis facing the country
  • Bouterfa to Ennahar: The Department of Water Resources would predict transformers in case of crises.
  
  61 dams are already in service, 18 others will to be operational in the future.
  
  
  - The national reserves of drinking water this year are estimated at three billion five hundred million cubic meters against one billion seven hundred million cubic meters last year.
• Despite the importance of the quantity of water available in the country, the water crisis is still raging and citizens suffer more and more. Hundreds of thousands of citizens across the country are thirsty, the sums allocated by the state to this sector went up in smoke because of mismanagement and poor distribution of water by local authorities.
  
  The director of water distribution at the Ministry of Water Resources, Mr Messaoud Terra said that the secretary general of the ministry had decided at his meeting with some executives in the sector, to supply, this year, one billion two hundred million cubic meters of drinking water, including 700 million cubic meters for drinking and the remaining for operations for irrigation of agricultural land. This means that the ministry has allocated the amount of water equally between domestic consumption and agriculture.
  
  Furthermore, Algeria has sixty-one dams in service, with a total capacity estimated at six billion five hundred million cubic meters. Thirty-eight dams at 100% for drinking water, such as the dams of ‘Keddara’ in the department of Boumerdes and ‘Taksebt’ in the department of Tizi Ouzou. Other dams are used both for consumption and for irrigation at the same time.
  
  Concerning dams not yet exploited, our interlocutor told us that there are currently thirteen dams while five others will be built in the future and are subject to international notice of appeal.
  
  Ennahar / Habiba Mahmoudi