Ghardaia flooding disaster call others in the future: expert says

The natural disasters ‘expert and seismologist, Rachid Azouz asserted that the floods that deluged the region of Ghardia (southern Algeria) could have been more dramatic if the local authorities didn’t proceed to the fortification of the “M’zab” river.

• Disasters caused by flooding is likely to happen again in other Algerian desert towns, to cause wreckage similar to the one that hit the district of  Bab Al Oued (Algiers) in 2001, because the towns built on or by the river sides are considered as time bombs in case of heavy rainfall.
• In a declaration to “Echorouk” the expert said” It is clear that human beings seek for mild temperatures and humidity in arid regions, that’s why they cluster in oasis and river banks even if these rivers are dry, but sooner or later they run through again with the coming rain”, which means according to him that “these regions are doomed to disappear as it was the case with cities erected at the foot of volcanoes”.
•   
• The expert concluded that most of the Algerian towns are threatened one day or another by inundations because all the rivers that lie underground can all of a sudden burst out in case of heavy rainfall.
• Talking about the latest flooding that submerged the region of Ghardaia, the expert said that the catastrophe was mainly the result of an anarchical expansion that the old city (200 years) underwent.
• By contrast, he said that the new town which is erected on the upper parts of the city will not be suggested to flooding, because it was built on scientific basis.