Amid a worsening drought that has led to water rationing and riots, Algeria is investing $5.4 billion to expand its desalination infrastructure, aiming to tackle the nation’s growing water crisis. The country, already home to Africa’s largest desalination facilities, is ramping up efforts as rainfall continues to decline, threatening its water supply.
This year, five new desalination plants will come online, boosting Algeria’s capacity, and producing 3.7 million cubic meters of drinking water daily from the Mediterranean Sea—equivalent to almost 54,500 average U.S. swimming pools.
By 2030, six more plants are planned, at which point the nation will be sourcing 60% of its drinking water from desalination.
While desalination offers a potential solution, it is also an expensive and energy-intensive process, requiring significant resources to remove salt from seawater.
Algeria’s role as a leading natural gas producer could help mitigate some of these costs, with the government planning to subsidize 95% of the estimated $2.8 million daily operating expenses for the desalination plants.
Algeria’s move reflects a broader trend across Africa, as other nations turn to desalination to address water scarcity. Morocco is set to invest over $3 billion to build its own facilities, while South Africa successfully used desalination technology to prevent a total water shortage in Cape Town during the 2018 crisis.
