ALGERIA: the use of containerized seawater desalination stations
As the year 2023 draws to a close, the public company Algerian Energy Company (AEC) unveils part of its roadmap for the next two years in terms of water supply in Algeria. Among the projects announced, the construction of mobile containerized desalination stations in villages across the country from 2024.
The project of mobile containerized desalination stations was presented on December 19, 2023 by Mohammed Boutabba, the general director of Algerian Energy Company ( AEC ), a subsidiary of the National Society for Research, Production, Transport, Transformation, and the marketing of hydrocarbons (Sonatrach). The public company intends to deploy this project from 2024 across the villages of Algeria. The AEC is banking on a partnership to make this initiative a reality, Mohammed Boutabba suggested last Tuesday.
Unlike standard water desalination plants, containerized plants will be manufactured on demand. They will have a capacity of between 2,500 and 2,700 m 3 per day each and will be able to support existing factories. Currently, Algeria has 12 desalination plants that support 80 dams dedicated to supplying water to Algerians. The North African country is facing climate change, which is manifested in particular by the drop in precipitation, leading to a drop in the filling level of dams. It is also ranked 29th country most affected by drought in the world by the Word Resources Institute (WRI).
Algeria's ambition by 2030 is to cover 60% of its drinking water needs from the desalination of sea water. And to do this, it will also be necessary to ensure the sustainability of the water plants. containerized desalination. This is how the AEC plans, in the second phase of this project, to secure the desalination stations through the local manufacturing of equipment, in particular filtration systems, explained the general director of the public company Mohammed Boutabba to our colleagues from Algiers Channel 3 on December 19, 2023.
While awaiting the installation of containerized desalination stations, the AEC is continuing the construction of five seawater desalination stations in Oran, Boumerdès, El Tarf, Bejaïa and Fouka 2. Each installation will have a production capacity of 300 000 m 3 of fresh water per day, or an overall capacity of 1.5 million m 3 for all the stations.
