The ministry of water resources coordinates the whole activity in the water sector. All the agencies mentioned above are under its authority, simplifying things, to some extent.

All the specific regulation and norms put into the form of laws or decrees are elaborated by the ministry.

A major law named “Code de l’Eau” was adopted in 1983. It determines the main principles of the water management in Algeria. Specifically it defines the property of water resources (ground and surface) being public.It also gives the priorities for the use of water: First the domestic, then the agricultural, and finally the industrial. One of its major issues was to introduce the idea of the private contract to run a public service. At the present time this private contract could only concern public structures.

In 1996, the major modification of this law was to extend this public service contract to private companies. The notion of hydrographical basin and integrated water management dealing with regional management schemes were also introduced. The hydrographical basin is defined as the appropriate dimension for the water management at the regional level.

Another structure was created which is, the National Consultative Council for Water Resources (Conseil National Consultatif des Ressources en Eau) in charge of the settlement of the water management plan and of giving an opinion about the strategical national options in the water sector. At this moment, the Council’s way of working is not yet defined. Another modification of the law was approved in 2005 focusing on the water sustainable management, and the necessary planning by means of regional water management schemes, developed inside the hydrographical districts. It also introduces the participation of the stakeholders, the different planners and the decision makers.

We can consider that there is no major problems with the law, as more or less good texts are constantly reviewed and published. The problems consist in the application of the law, especially what is related to the police of water, i.e the structures in charge of the control and application of the law (use of water, controls of quality).

The pricing is decided at a national level, for all the different uses, which means that there is no regional pricing. Since 1996 some taxes have been introduced, one on the water economy, and the other on the water pollution. They are paid by all the consumers connected to a water network, domestic, agricultural or industrial. Since 2005, another tax exists which is applied to industries and services exploiting their own facilities of water productions. The idea was to introduce progressively the notion of “the polluter pays” and “the consumer pays”.
For the control of the water quality, the Agence Nationale des Resources Hydrauliques holds a network of measurement points, all over the country that deals with both the surface and the ground waters.

There are national standards of physico-chemical pollution, strongly inspired by the WHO standards. The ANRH and the hydrographical basin agencies use the results to publish regularly maps on the general situation of pollution in the regions.

No particular transboundary problems with our neighbours (especially Tunisia, Morocco and Libya) are faced.