Management of Water Resources in a Hyper-Arid Area: Strategy and Issues (Case of Oued-Souf Valley-South Eastern of Algeria)

Abstract

Rising Groundwater in Oued-Souf valley is result to errors committed by human in their interventions on the ecosystems and the mismanagement of this resource, witch principally marked in overexploitation of depth groundwater and the used sewerage system, leading the region to a truly dramatic and almost desperate, palms were turned into sort of marshes, where reeds take the place of dead palm trees. This situation lead us to search a model of water resources management, according to sustainability criteria taking into account the socio-economic (social, agricultural, industrial, tourism ) and ecosystem aspects (environmental and territorial). This by adapting and implementing the Integrated Management of Water Resources (IMWR) in this unit of water resources, so as to guide and mobilize progressively human, informational, financial and material resources, as well as the various sectors private and public to research concrete and measurable results, for water and ecosystems those are associated and that people wanted to see protected and restored

Impacts of climate change and anthropization on groundwater resources in the Nouakchott urban area (coastal Mauritania)

“…The consequences are similar to those observed in Nouakchott (deterioration of houses, health issues), although to a lesser extent. Another comparison can be made with the region of Oued-Souf in Algeria (e.g., Khechana and Derradji, 2012), where the intense exploitation of deeper aquifers for drinking water and for the expansion of irrigation has brought huge amounts of water into an area with no natural drainage. The lack of control by authorities for decades has turned the oasis into a wetland in the middle of the Sahara Desert, with palm trees dying because of excess water, and accompanying sanitary and town planning problems.…”

Assessing Drinking Water Quality in El-Oued, South-East Algeria, Utilizing the Groundwater Pollution Index (GPI) and the Synthetic Pollution Index (SPI) model

“…Furthermore, the quality of this resource has been affected and is currently becoming a major concern for water managers and the local population (Khechana S, 2014;ZINE B, 2009). This deterioration in quality has resulted in high levels of certain physicochemical elements that sometimes exceed national (Algerian standards) or international (WHO standards) standards for drinking water.…”