44% of Algerian households face lingering drinking water shortages

A senior executive from the hydraulics sector, Messaoud Terra has admitted that a large number of the Algerian population is still facing acute disruptions in the supply of drinking water in various parts of the country.

He acknowledged that around 44% of Algerian households in big urban centers and elsewhere in the country were still beset by potable water shortages despite the efforts made by the relevant hydraulics services to remedy the situation but so far without achieving the expected results.

However, he brought out the relevant authorities’ pledge to rehabilitate and cleanse the existing water piping system extending over 120 thousand kilometers through fresh national and foreign investments which are close at hand, as he put it.

These salutary and hefty investments, he explained, are estimated at over 2.000 billion dinars and will serve shortly to upgrade the water-piping network in most parts of the country to make it tally with international norms.

For the time being, Mr Messaoud Tera affirmed that 24% of Algerian households were supplied with drinking water once in two days, while another 9% receive water once every three days and 6% are supplied with potable water through roving water tanks carried by trucks which tour localities and districts.

These percentage points equal in fact 44% of the overall number of Algerian homes suffering from endemic drinking water shortages in various parts of the country.