Infrastructure (Energy-Hydraulic) for broad groundwater mobilization and agricultural resilience in the context of shortages and impacts of climate change in the Northern Sahara Aquifer Basin (SASS)

The Northern Sahara Aquifer System (SASS) is a basin of more than 1000,000 km shared by three countries (Algeria, Tunisia, Libya) with considerable but not renewable water potential. This water potential is overexploited in view of the estimates of the levies, which rose from 0.6 billion m3/year in 1970 to 2.8 billion m3/year in 2013, almost triple the average recharge (1 billion m3/year).

DESCRIPTION

The Northern Sahara Aquifer System (SASS) is a basin of more than 1000,000 km shared by three countries (Algeria, Tunisia, Libya) with considerable but not renewable water potential. This water potential is overexploited in view of the estimates of the levies, which rose from 0.6 billion m3/year in 1970 to 2.8 billion m3/year in 2013, almost triple the average recharge (1 billion m3/year).

If the state of overexploitation persists, due to the increase in water needs that could double by 2030 due to the extension of irrigation, the consequences will be dramatic and may result, among other things, in a sharp deterioration in water and soil quality. As a result, alternative solutions must be sought through, among other things, the generalization of renewable energy (solar), the realization of renewable water points, drainage systems, water demineralization stations accompanied by efficient management of irrigation water.

The project serves a planned infrastructure asset of another sector, but there is less than 50% overlap in the geography serviced by the proposed project and the other sector planned asset.

Agricultural development through irrigation efficiency to triple irrigated areas by 2030; The development of solar energy, especially in arid areas; Job creation in the agricultural sector; Modernising irrigation through water-efficient practices; The use of unconventional water in irrigation through the demineralization of brackish water and the recovery of drainage water; The involvement of the private sectors and research in agricultural development; Incentives to invest in major agricultural projects; The development of cold storage capacity and packaging centres, particularly in arid areas; The attractiveness of the agricultural sector to young people. Innovation Drip System: - Use of Solar Energy; - applications of the "renewable energy-water-agriculture" nexus. - Rain systems outside the oasis, available in: - Private irrigated serriculture system and perimeter for the production of early or off-season market garden products with high added value. There, the problem is related to the degradation of the quality of the groundwater resource by salinization by contamination with marine water; The rain-fed olive system, threatened with drought with decline. In both cases, too, the application of a "renewable energy-water-agriculture" nexus is able to safeguard and redeploy them on the path to sustainability. The expected results of this reasoned intensification are as follows: - The conservation of water and soil resources and the preservation of their qualities; - Significant improvement in agronomic performance (saving 30% of irrigation water, recovery and reallocation of drainage water, at least doubling yields/ha relative to baseline, diversification of production and improvement in quality). This with a very positive integration of livestock into crop systems; - The increase (double or even triple) in the income of farmers to the benefit of the local economy; - The consolidation of the social structures and cultural values of these regions based on group solidarity, through new structures created and adopted by the indigenous peoples themselves. - Establishment of demineralization stations for brackish waters

OBJECTIVES AND RATIONALE

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PROJECT ECONOMICS

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PROJECT FINANCING

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE

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STUDIES

PROJECT STAKEHOLDERS

Continental Coordinator

African Union Development Agency

Lead REC

Arab Maghreb Union

CONTACTS

Mr. Hate Bouti-hassenbouti@gmail.com

Mr. Nouraddin Omar Almokhtar-noir2080@gmail.com

CONTRIBUTION TO 2030 AGENDA