Plea for an Ecological Revolution in Rainwater Management in Algeria.

In the burning silence of Saharan afternoons, a simple but crucial question arises: how many liters of water do we let slip away each day, while the sky offers them to us for free as precious drops? These drops, we watch them fall without ever thinking of conserving them, even though they could become the key to our food security, our resilience, and our future.

Water is a treasure. It is rare. It is precious. Every drop counts.

Today, as the whole world adapts to climate change, Algeria can no longer afford to be a mere spectator. I recently had the opportunity to review a set of specifications drawn up by the Saudi State for the leasing of land in a mountainous desert area, specifically intended for the cultivation of lavender and citrus trees. Just recovery and intelligence. In Saudi Arabia, with less than 250 mm of rainfall per year, farmers are required to adapt to the climate instead of fighting it.

And what about us, in Algeria? Why do we continue to design cities and agricultural projects that ignore natural cycles? Why do we persist in draining rainwater to the sea, spending billions on desalination plants to recover the same water that we could have captured and used where it fell?

Moving away from a rent-based economy also means restoring our connection to the land.

We must dare to change our paradigm. The droughts we experience are not inevitable: the rains that fall each year are enough to meet our needs, provided we capture every drop and make the most of it. Even rare, these rains impose a responsibility on us: to use them wisely, and above all, never to lose them in sewers, the sea, or the desert.

It’s time to stop lamenting the drought and start acting.

A collective awakening is necessary. We need a national mobilization: hydrologists, climatologists, agronomists, urban planners, architects, engineers, elected officials, and citizens must rethink together our water management, our cities, and our territories.

Solutions exist. They have proven themselves elsewhere.

Brad Lancaster, an American pioneer of rainwater harvesting in Tucson, Arizona, has shown that in a desert area with less than 280 mm of rain per year, it is possible to live almost entirely on locally harvested water. By creating retention basins, reusing gray water from showers and sinks, and capturing condensate from air conditioning, he has reduced his water consumption to less than 20 liters per person per day, while maintaining fruit trees and vegetable gardens.

This model is not a utopia. It is replicable, here in Algeria. In Tamanrasset, Béchar, Adrar, Ghardaïa… We can:

– Install rainwater harvesting systems on flat roofs,
– Create rain gardens and urban micro-forests,
– Reuse gray water to irrigate fruit trees,
– Educate citizens and schoolchildren in a new water culture.

And above all, we can draw inspiration from ancestral knowledge and successful experiences in Africa.

In arid and semi-arid regions, simple and effective methods have proven their worth, such as the half-moons technique in Niger and Burkina Faso. Dug in a crescent shape on degraded soils, these structures capture runoff water and sediments, promoting water retention, soil fertility, and the germination of natural vegetation. They transform arid steppes into grazing land for livestock, reduce erosion, and regenerate entire ecosystems.

Combined with other techniques, such as agroforestry, planting adapted species (trees, shrubs, herbs), or creating water flow slowing zones (ZRE), these solutions help recharge aquifers, stabilize soils, and reduce flooding and drought.

These approaches are suitable for the Algerian steppes, the High Plateaus, and the Saharan regions. They offer us a concrete path to food sovereignty and climate resilience.

Because harvesting rainwater is not going backward. It’s moving forward.

It’s about choosing intelligence, resilience, and hope.

It’s about understanding that every drop is a promise: of food, freshness, fertility, and life.

Algeria needs a wake-up call. Not in ten years. Now.

It starts with concrete actions:

– Systematically integrating rainwater harvesting in all urban, agricultural, or industrial projects,
– Training a new generation of professionals in integrated water management,
– Funding retention basins, rain gardens, infiltration systems, and generalizing the use of gray water,
– Organizing, without delay, national water conferences to define a clear water sovereignty strategy, involving experts, elected officials, and citizens,
– Launching pilot zones in the South, the Saharan Atlas, and the High Plateaus to demonstrate the feasibility of a model based on rainwater retention and ecosystem regeneration.

Because, ultimately, it’s not just about water.

It’s about food sovereignty, economic independence, and climate resilience.

It’s not about lack of rain, but lack of will.

Every drop is a future. Every drop is a victory.

I asked Michal Kravčík, a world-renowned hydrologist, what message he would send to Algeria: he replied that the key is to restore the small water cycle, broken by deforestation and urbanization over the past 150 years. His mantra is clear: keep water on the continents, stop draining it to the sea.

So let’s act, now.

Let’s make Algeria a model country, where every drop of water is honored, captured, used, and shared.

Let every drop become a promise of life.

Let every drop count.

Teaser image credit: Stone bunds and demi-lunes constructed on a farm in Ethiopia. By USAID in Africa – Resilience Enhanced through Adaptation, Action-learning and Partnerships (REAAP), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70817078