Algeria is planning to construct three seawater desalination plants in the Algiers, Annaba and Skikda provinces so as to increase the supply and access of drinking water to the residents.
The Algerian Minister of Water Resources, Arezki Berraki, confirmed the reports and stated the infrastructures will be installed on three sites, notably in the wilaya of Algiers, the smallest, but also the most populous of the 48 wilayas which make up Algeria, in Annaba, a town situated in the north-east of the country, 536 kilometres east of the capital Algiers, and in Skikda, a commune situated on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, 471 km east of Algiers.
“The three new plants are intended to reinforce the existing desalination structures as they are intended to have a capacity of 300,000 cubic meters a day,” he added.
The plants are very important projects to the country as they will not only supply drinking water but also help in the supply of desalinated water to the country’s coastal towns for irrigation and this initiative will help farmers especially during the dry seasons.
READ: Morocco to initiate largest seawater desalination plant in 2021
Other seawater desalination plants in Algeria
11 seawater desalination plants already exist in the country. They are spread over 9 provinces which include; Chlef, Tlemcen, Algiers, Skikda, Mostaganem, Oran, Boumerdès, Tipaza and Ain Témouchent. These plants produce only 17% of the total amount of drinking water consumed in the whole country.
The 11 plants have reached 2,110,000 cubic metres per day, the equivalent of 770 cubic metres per year, providing drinking water throughout the country’s various wilayas.
While the heavy rains recorded in recent days have contributed to increasing the reserves of dams in Algeria, over utilization of surface and groundwater resources in some parts of Africa, has led to scarcity, and contributed greatly to the shift from conventional water resources to non-conventional water resources such as desalination in several African countries.
According to the UN, water stress is expected to increase further and by 2030, 75 to 250 million people in Africa will be living in areas of high water scarcity.
