βWhack-a-mole situationβ: Algerian officials wrestle with water shortage anger
27 June 2024 at 00:00
State not acting fast enough to build desalination stations to deal with dwindling rainfall and resulting drought, say critics
On 8 June, anger over months of water rationing spilled over in the drought-stricken central Algerian town of Tiaret, where balaclava-wearing demonstrators barricaded roads and burned tyres.
Rationing had been introduced to deal with a drought in parts of Algeria and neighbouring Morocco where the amount of rainfall that had historically replenished critical reservoirs was much reduced. Taps had been running dry for months, forcing people in the region β a semi-arid, high-desert plateau increasingly plagued by extreme heat β to queue to access water.
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