Algeria Accuses Morocco of Reducing Water Flow Across Border

Algeria has accused Morocco of reducing its share of the waters of the "Oued Guir", which extends from Moroccan territory to Algerian territory. Another point of friction between the two countries: the dams. According to Algeria, the Moroccan dam of Kaddoussa is the main cause of the reduction in water flow towards the Algerian dam of Jorf Lasfar, one of the largest dams in the country. This situation is not without consequences: an environmental disaster would have occurred due to the drop in the water level in the dam, leading to the death of fish and the migration of birds.

This is not the first time that Algeria has made such accusations against Morocco. From Ljubljana (Slovenia), Taha Derbal, the Algerian Minister of Hydraulics, had last October accused Morocco of destroying transboundary surface waters. "The western and southwestern regions of Algeria are suffering negative effects resulting from the practices of the neighboring state, Morocco, obstructing and destroying transboundary surface waters," he had stated in a speech delivered during the work of the 10th Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, according to the official agency APS.

According to him, the contamination of the incoming waters in Algeria from Morocco has in particular deteriorated the quality of the waters of the Hammam Boughrara dam in the wilaya of Tlemcen, due to the contamination of the waters coming from the Moroccan territories. Taha Derbal will add that the sharp reduction in the waters of the Ghir wadi due to the construction, on the Moroccan side, of the Kadoussa dam has led to the drying up of the lake of the Djorf Torba dam located on the Algerian territory. This is a "methodical drying up" of this important dam, he had denounced.