At the present time, only one ministry is responsible for water which is: the Ministry of Water Resources, created in 1999; before that, water had been managed in different ways by the ministry of public works, then in 1978 by a ministry of water, but associated to other activities: environment, forests, town and country planning.
The Ministry has the responsibility of the water policy, and investments’ planning, in all the matters relative to water: mobilization, transfers, drinking water and sewage networks, treatment plants. It is also responsible for the water allocation between the different uses (agricultural, industrial and domestic). It controls the water resources in terms of quantity and quality, and for this purpose, it implements all the necessary studies and collects all the data relative to water resources, and also all the private and public structures operating in the water field are under its control.
The ministry is also in charge of controlling:
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Five national agencies: Agence Nationale des Barrages et des Transferts, Agence Nationale des Ressources hydrauliques , Agence Nationale de l’Irrigation et du Drainage, Algérienne des Eaux , Office National d’Assainissement.
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Five hydrographical basin agencies working at a regional level.
The responsibilities about water have been modified several times during the fifteen last years. Water distribution has been alternatively centralized then de-centralized. As an example: irrigation was previously managed by the Ministry of Agriculture. All these changes do not help to simplify the general management.
