2024-03-05 20:17:16
ALGIERS- Minister of Hydraulics, Taha Derbal co-chaired, Tuesday, at the headquarters of his ministerial department, with the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Youcef Cherfa, a coordination meeting devoted to examining the means of develop the use of wastewater in agricultural irrigation.
In his speech during this meeting, which took place in the presence of central executives from the two ministries, Mr. Derbal indicated that “the achievement of food security is dependent on the achievement of water security”, emphasizing that 70% of water resources identified by the sector are for agricultural irrigation, which also requires the provision of unconventional resources such as treated wastewater as an “important source following surface water, groundwater and desalinated water “.
On this occasion, he discussed the sector’s action plan in this area, in particular the mobilization of all means to increase the wastewater purification capacity, with the objective of exploiting 60% of the quantities recovered at the level national by directing them towards the agricultural and industrial sectors, in accordance with the directives of the President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
The minister also affirmed that the experience of using purified wastewater has revealed its effectiveness in many large agricultural areas across several wilayas of the country, such as Oran, Tlemcen, Boumerdès, Médéa and Mascara, hence “the need to generalize this experience through the modernization and rehabilitation of stations”.
According to the minister, the exploitation of purified wastewater will not be limited only to the irrigation of agricultural land, but will extend to the development efforts of the green dam by examining the means of irrigating its perimeters with this resource, noting of the existence of 37 purification systems near this ecological and vital building, which should allow the sector to supply 100 million cubic meters annually.
The ministry also plans to set up irrigation systems for forest areas as part of the green dam which offers benefits to the highlands and interior regions to combat the phenomenon of desertification.
For his part, Mr. Cherfa underlined the importance of ensuring agricultural irrigation water by mobilizing unconventional water resources to meet growing demand, referring to the directives of the President of the Republic concerning the need to rationalize the use of water and promote unconventional resources in the agricultural and industrial sector.
He added that his sector is working to manage an ambitious program aimed at expanding irrigated agricultural areas in order to reach, by 2030, 2.3 million hectares compared to 1.6 million hectares currently, and this as part of the State’s efforts to increase agricultural production and strengthen food security.
Concerning unconventional water resources and their use in the agricultural sector, the minister announced the possibility of devoting significant quantities to use them in the irrigation of areas falling within the framework of the construction of the green dam, as well as for the irrigation of resistant fruit trees and the program to plant one million olive trees and one million palm trees.
The meeting resulted in an agreement between the two parties to generalize this option and extend it to national agricultural areas, in addition to the use of these waters for the irrigation of the trees forming the green dam.
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