A dispatch from theAgency France Press (AFP) reported, yesterday Monday, that popular demonstrations broke out on the first and second day of Eid Al-Adha in several regions of the province of Tiaret, in western Algeria, due to the inability of authorities to resolve the shortage of drinking water which has persisted for several months.
Neither the feigned instructions of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who demanded on June 2 to supply, within 48 hours at the latest, the Tiaret region with running drinking water, nor the promises of his government, which has given itself two maximum weeks to resolve this serious water shortage before Eid, have been held.
Worse, there is a total blackout in the Algerian media on the specter of the water crisis which is hitting hard or threatening several regions of the country. These media outlets prefer to look elsewhere by engaging in propaganda to focus solely on what they call the (non-existent) “achievements” of the local politico-military regime, while numerous pages and accounts on social networks, relayed by the international press, widely disseminated the images of the resumption of “protest demonstrations, interspersed with closure of main roads» leading to Tiaret (280 km southwest of Algiers). Last Sunday and Monday, the first and second day of Eid, traffic was blocked in this region by angry protesters.
Some sources have notably mentioned the total blockage of national road No. 14 linking the town of Frenda to Tiaret and its city center. Images clearly show large blocks of stone erected as barricades in the middle of the road to prevent cars from passing.
احتجاجات في الجزائر ضد العطش يوم عيد الأضحى
Residents of the so-called “220 housing” neighborhood also closed the road linking Tiaret to the commune of Aïn Bouchekif, located approximately 18 km away.
On the official page of the Algerian Water Company, responsible for distributing drinking water to Tiaret and other wilayas, an Internet user reacted with a comment where we can read: “Your promises to the inhabitants of the wilaya of Tiaret were a mirage, especially during the first day of Eid, where several areas are still without a single drop of water??»
In El-Rahouia, located about 40 kilometers from Tiaret, Internet users published a video of a gathering of citizens yesterday Monday. These would be demonstrators who “prevented the governor from leaving the headquarters of this commune before having listened to their grievances» and made concrete commitments regarding solutions to the shortage of drinking water.
The governor noted, throughout the Tiaret region, the scale of new nighttime demonstrations on the first day of Eid Al-Adha, during which car tires were burned on public roads.
Since last May, the semi-desert wilaya of Tiaret has been facing a serious drinking water supply crisis, following the total drying up of the Bakhda dam, the only source of water supply for the entire region, causing the triggering violent demonstrations.
The crisis pushed Abdelmadjid Tebboune, as he prepares for the early presidential election next September, to chair, in complete panic, a council of ministers on June 2, during which he ordered “to the Ministers of the Interior and Hydraulics to find an urgent and exceptional solution», with a view to supplying Tiaret with water within 48 hours at the latest.
The next day, Ministers Ibrahim Merad (Interior) and Taha Darbal (Hydraulics) went to Tiaret and presented a plan to resolve the water problem, not in 48 hours as Tebboune falsely demanded, but “before Eid Al-Adha“.
Last Friday, the Minister of Hydraulics returned to Tiaret to commission a project to supply the town of Tiaret from… a well drilled and connected to the water supply network. Small consolation, since the water shortage still persists the day after the fateful date of Eid.
The significance of this hastily drilled well, an insignificant gesture in short, was amplified by the Algerian authorities and their media, suggesting that the water crisis is resolved in Tiaret, before being denied by the angry movements of the inhabitants of this wilaya, which risk being followed by several cities across the country.
Since the election of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in December 2019, street demonstrations, both social and political, have certainly diminished under the effect of the relentless repression carried out by the generals, but the water crisis in Tiaret has revived fears of a return of large demonstrations against the government, which wants to maintain calm before the presidential election of September 7, 2024. This renewed political-social tension has disrupted Tebboune’s agenda, which has still not received the go-ahead Army Green to officially announce his candidacy for a second term.
