Algeria Defines the Water Security Equation 2030: From Resource Management to Sovereign Strategy
✍️ BY: Mohamed Belkour – Algeria Now
Adapted by: Dr. Hana Saada
Algiers – October 2025 – As climate disruptions intensify and pressure mounts on natural resources, Algeria is boldly charting a new water doctrine—one that redefines the nation’s relationship with water not as a social service, but as a pillar of national sovereignty. In this strategic shift, water has transcended its traditional role as a technical development issue to become a core component of food security, social stability, and economic independence.
Under the direct guidance of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Algeria is moving decisively from a logic of management to a logic of preventive security and long-term sovereign planning. Desalination plants, once viewed as infrastructure projects, now represent geostrategic assets safeguarding national stability against the threats of climate change and cross-border scarcity.
According to government data, Algeria currently operates 19 desalination plants producing around 3.7 million cubic meters per day. The complementary national program—which includes five new plants of 300,000 cubic meters each—will raise total output to 5.6 million cubic meters per day by 2030, allowing desalinated water to meet nearly 40% of national demand. By then, Algeria plans to operate 25 to 27 plants across its coastal zones, a trajectory that positions the country among the world’s leaders in sustainable water governance.
Presidential Directives Set the Blueprint for Water Sovereignty
During the latest Council of Ministers meeting, President Tebboune issued a series of decisive instructions that formalize water security as a strategic pillar of Algeria’s national defense architecture. The Council approved the establishment of three new desalination plants in Chlef, Mostaganem, and Tlemcen, each with a daily capacity of 300,000 cubic meters, while designating additional sites for future projects.
The President called for a scientific and regionally tailored approach to tackle drought challenges, urging ministries to conduct high-standard studies that anticipate environmental risks. These directives reflect a paradigm shift from crisis management to proactive resilience, positioning water at the heart of Algeria’s sovereignty—alongside energy, defense, and food security.
As President Tebboune’s doctrine makes clear, water sovereignty is now part of a broader national security concept, anchored in infrastructure resilience, scientific foresight, and technological autonomy.
Dr. Tigressi: Water Security Becomes a Core National Priority
Dr. Houari Tigressi, an economist and professor at the University of Ben Aknoun, affirmed in a statement to Algeria Now that “water security in Algeria has become a matter of sovereignty, not simply development.” He hailed the localization of the new desalination plants as “a strategic leap toward securing permanent water resources,” emphasizing that desalination has evolved from an emergency solution to a national imperative ensuring sustainable development and easing pressure on dams and aquifers.
According to Tigressi, this strategy demonstrates the State’s maturity in turning environmental challenges into opportunities for growth and resilience, adding that Algeria’s focus on water security sends a dual message—one of domestic protection for citizens and another of regional independence from external climate and resource pressures.
This, he explained, is a form of “soft deterrence” rooted in infrastructure, foresight, and diplomacy, rather than confrontation.
Governance and Digitalization: The Keys to Water Security
For Tigressi, achieving water sovereignty depends on transparent and unified governance, integrating all relevant ministries under a digitalized national water system using smart meters and real-time data to monitor consumption and prevent leakage. He further advocated for a balanced water pricing policy, one that reflects true production costs while maintaining subsidies for vulnerable populations.
He pointed out that reducing distribution losses could equal the output of entire new desalination plants, highlighting the importance of public-private partnerships and green bonds in ensuring the sector’s financial sustainability.
In this sense, digital governance is not an administrative reform—it is a sovereign reengineering of national resource management, transforming data into an instrument of state power. Algeria’s aim is to establish a “smart water economy”, managed through precise metrics and advanced technology, capable of confronting future challenges from a position of strength rather than adaptation.
Desalination: From Technical Project to Sovereign Bet
Observers note that Algeria’s water policy has moved beyond the service paradigm to become a pillar of national security and sovereignty. Since taking office, President Tebboune has launched an ambitious national desalination program, highlighted by the inauguration of the Ras El-Bayda plant in Ain El-Kerma, with a capacity of 300,000 cubic meters per day supplying six western provinces.
This was followed by the commissioning of major plants in Fouka, Cap Djinet, Koudiet Draouch, and Tigremt, raising national desalination capacity to over 3.7 million cubic meters per day, making Algeria the leading country in Africa and the second in the Arab world after Saudi Arabia in this field.
Experts agree that this transformation marks a strategic redefinition of the State’s water philosophy, with desalination now serving as a sovereign shield against climate volatility and a guarantor of generational stability. In this framework, the sea has become a source not of vulnerability, but of sovereignty—a means to strengthen Algeria’s geopolitical resilience against environmental and regional pressures.
Algeria Builds Its Water Security Vision to 2030
Looking ahead, Algeria’s National Desalination Program envisions 27 operational plants by 2030, producing over 5.6 million cubic meters per day, equivalent to 2 billion cubic meters annually.
Experts are urging the creation of a National Council for Water Security under the Presidency, bringing together domestic and international experts to craft a long-term strategy through 2050, integrating groundwater management, non-conventional resources, and nationwide water connectivity.
As Dr. Tigressi concludes, “President Tebboune is institutionalizing water security as a cornerstone of national sovereignty.” Desalination and water recycling have thus become strategic instruments of defense, ensuring Algeria’s food, social, and environmental security for decades to come.
By achieving the Water Security 2030 Vision, Algeria is set to establish itself as a regional leader in sustainable resource management, a model for Africa and the Arab world in transforming a global climate challenge into a source of power, independence, and influence.
In this new equation, water is no longer a vulnerability—it is Algeria’s strategic capital, a lifeline of sovereignty that anchors the country’s environmental, economic, and geopolitical strength in the decades ahead.
Source: الجزائر الآن
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