Algeria is turning to digital technologies and artificial intelligence to tackle its growing water security challenges, with the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Start-ups and Micro-enterprises launching a national call for projects aimed at building a domestic innovation ecosystem in the water sector.
The initiative, announced March 18, targets innovators, startups, scale-ups, micro-enterprises, incubators, accelerators, university researchers and Algerian talent based abroad. Priority areas include solutions to reduce water leaks and waste, improve energy efficiency in desalination, expand water reuse, promote smart irrigation and sustainable agriculture, and deploy AI and the Internet of Things in water management. Technologies that enhance climate change adaptation are also supported.
The program aims to develop homegrown technological solutions, launch pilot projects and foster collaboration between public and private stakeholders, in line with Algeria’s national digital transformation strategy.
Algeria faces increasing water stress due to its geographic and climatic conditions. The country sits largely within arid to semi-arid zones, where water resources are limited and depend heavily on irregular rainfall and overexploited groundwater reserves.
Hydrogeology expert Abdesselam Malek highlighted the structural dimension of the problem in an interview with the daily Horizons. “In our country, especially in the South, our oases have endured thanks to resilience in the face of highly irregular rainfall, with diversion dams toward storage areas and ingenious sharing systems,” he said. “Our wadis in the North lose too quickly flows amounting to hundreds of millions of cubic meters that reach the sea within a few days, sometimes within a few hours.”
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has noted that emerging technologies can significantly improve water resource management, citing drone-based early warning systems, Earth observation technologies and smart meters that provide real-time data as tools capable of improving efficiency in water supply and sanitation systems.
