As 2023 draws to a close, the state-owned Algerian Energy Company (AEC) is unveiling part of its roadmap for the next two years in terms of water supply in Algeria. Among the projects announced is the construction of mobile containerised desalination plants in villages across the country from 2024.
The project for mobile containerised desalination plants was presented on 19 December 2023 by Mohammed Boutabba, the Managing Director of Algerian Energy Company (AEC), a subsidiary of the national company for the research, production, transport, processing and marketing of hydrocarbons (Sonatrach). The state-owned company plans to roll out the project across Algeria’s villages from 2024. The AEC is counting on a partnership to make this initiative a reality, Mohammed Boutabba said last Tuesday.
Unlike standard water desalination plants, the containerised facilities will be built on demand. They will have a capacity of between 2,500 and 2,700 m3 per day each, and will be capable of supporting existing plants. Algeria currently has 12 desalination plants supporting 80 dams dedicated to supplying water to Algerians. The North African country is having to cope with climate change, which is reflected in a drop in rainfall, leading to a fall in the level at which dams are filled. In fact, the Word Resources Institute (WRI) has ranked Algeria as the 29th country in the world most affected by drought.
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Algeria’s ambition is to cover 60% of its drinking water needs from seawater desalination by 2030. To achieve this, it will also be necessary to ensure the long-term viability of containerised desalination plants. This is why, in the second phase of this project, the AEC plans to secure the desalination plants through the local manufacture of equipment, in particular filtration systems, as Mohammed Boutabba, Managing Director of the state-owned company, explained to our Alger Chaine 3 colleagues on 19 December 2023.
Pending the installation of containerised desalination plants, the AEC is continuing to build five seawater desalination plants in Oran, Boumerdès, El Tarf, Bejaïa and Fouka 2. Each plant will have a production capacity of 300,000 m3 of fresh water per day, giving an overall capacity of 1.5 million m3 for all the plants.
Inès Magoum
