Climate Change, Water Resources and Desertification in Algeria

The purpose of this document is to provide some statistical data on climate change, which may help to identify the 'variational' effects of precipitation at different spatial and temporal scales on assessed water resources in Algeria. Large-scale rainfall analysis indicates that the climate is exhibiting increasingly irregular oscillations with a cyclical pattern, showing a succession of fairly long dry periods interspersed with short wet spells. The drought observed since 1975 remains the longest of the century, and is exceptional in terms of its unprecedented intensity. The immediate consequences, on a global scale, are an imbalance in the water cycle, thereby exacerbating the critical situation regarding water resources, which are unevenly distributed across the world. The socio-economic challenges for national and even international policy regarding planning and development remain linked to the consideration of adverse climatic hazards such as soil erosion, the pollution of wadis by untreated wastewater discharges, flooding and desertification.