The Spain-based Dragados Group recently delivered Algeria’s largest water dam to the nation’s water authorities, l’Agence Nationale des Barrages. Completed in the fourth quarter of 2001, the Beni Haroun dam has a storage capacity of 960 million cubic meters of water.
The dam is part of a large water inter-connection project, enabling the supply of 310 million cubic meters of water annually to residents of six northeastern provinces. The region’s population would get 150 liters of water per day. Some 194 million cubic meters of water from the system will also be used for irrigation purposes.
The Beni Haroun Dam is the result of a large hydraulic project to supply drinking and irrigation water to the region of Constantine in the north of the country. This project was completed in the Spring of 2001 after fifteen months of work carried out by a team formed of 1,000 Algerians and 110 Spaniards.
Fresh water is becoming an increasingly precious commodity in many parts of the world, particularly in the North Sahara. This past November, the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced it would lend Algeria 225 million euros ($200 million) for the construction of a drinking water pipeline to supply the greater Algiers and Kabylie regions.
The loan will go to the Algerian Development Bank, which will put the money at the disposal of the National Dam Agency, and the Ministry for Water Resources. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
