Wastewater management in informal settlements: a case study from Algiers

Abstract

Algiers has faced flashing urban growth during last three decades. The settlements associated with al-Harrash River became a center of discussion since water scarcity, surface and groundwater contamination and flooding threatened its habitat. The expansion of settlements are causing heavy toll on public hygiene and sanitation, which virtually leads into a diffusing urban insalubrity. We hypothesize that water related pathologies seem insurmountable and wastewater system is inefficient to cater adequate public health, personnel security and wellbeing of the city dweller. The Trois Caves informal settlement within the municipality of Al-Harrash from Algiers was selected to test this hypothesis. The study adapts a wastewater management’s multicriteria analysis with respect to the urban water cycle management strategy. The cumulative sum of their performance indices has been formulated after three mean values designating efficiency, profitability and sustainability closely associated to the sustainable development strategy [1]. The scores obtained revealed that only the collecting operation presents a comparative efficiency.

Keywords:

• Algiers
• Informal settlement
• Multicriteria analysis
• Wastewater management

Notes

1 Bureau d’Hygiène Communale (Public Hygiene Local Office), 2011.

2 The plain has been urbanized at the beginning of the XIXth century. The French colonizing villages could be settled thanks to a large marshland draining operation. Since then, al-Harrash municipality, that was named Maison Carrée, has been regularly exposed to flood hazards threatening inhabitants, buildings and economic activities. Later, many factories and workshops have been built close by banks initiating the river’s pollution that is still going on today. Such a degraded urban environment has attracted and still does informal settlements that have never really beneficiated of urban commodities. In fact, within some districts, the wastewater threat seriously menaces the public health and the environment salubrity (Aroua and Berezowska-Azzag [2]).

3 Average of temperature = 10.5°C/ winter; 24.2°C/ summer. Average annual rainfall = 672 mm/year.

4 Quartier les Trois caves. Commune d’el-Harrach. Opération de restructuration. Phase 01, Ministère de l’habitat, Direction de l’aménagement du territoire, de l’urbanisme, de la prévention et de la résorption de l’habitat précaire de la wilaya d’Alger. Actualisation du schéma directeur d’assainissement de la Wilaya d’Alger, Phase A1—Etat des lieux—Recueil de données, Rapport de synthèse, Société des Eaux et de l’Assainissement d’Alger, Août 2008, 136p.

5 The station initially provided a capacity of 900 000 eg/inhab.

6 IWCM concept has been widely diffused by the International Conference on Water and the Environment in Dublin, Ireland, on January 26-31, 1992.

7 Kouba, Bach Djerrah et Magharia, Mohammadia, Hussein Dey, Bourouba, Gué de Constantine.

8 Low-Impact Development Hydrologic Analysis, Prince George’s County, Maryland, Dept of environmental resources, Programs and Planning division, July 1999, 45p.

9 Algerian Water Resources Ministry, www.mre.dz

10 The Water Urban Sensitive Design (WSUD) is the principle created out of necessity to answering the increasing water demand and the lancinating drought systematically followed by an important rainfall and flooding events. The main objective of WSUD consists in protecting the global cycle and quality of water, favoring the reusing of storm waters, reducing the flooding and contamination risk, minimizing the sanitation infrastructure cost.

11 Direction de l’Hydraulique de la Wilaya d’Alger (Water Departmental Office), Subdivision d’al-Harrash (Water Local Office), 2011.