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An unprecedented environmental protest movement in a remote part of Algeria has disrupted the country’s multibillion-dollar shale programme and is making political waves across the north African nation and the wider region.
Since the start of January, thousands of protesters have turned up daily in the rural town of Ain Salah, in the heart of the Sahara, to take part in increasingly raucous rallies against a $70bn hydraulic fracturing project they say will pollute the groundwater and disturb the environment.
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Earlier this month the demonstrations turned violent after protesters attempted to stage a sit-in at a facility owned by Halliburton, the US oil services group. This ignited clashes with police in at least three further towns, leading to scores of injuries, dozens of damaged vehicles and the burning down of a municipal building, prompting the army to move troops into the area and impose a shaky order.
“The police directly shot tear gas at the protesters,” said Hamza Hamouchene, an Algerian activist based in the UK. “It was an act of provocation.”
The protesters, which include women and children, say they have no agenda other than to stop what they see as a dangerous experiment that could hurt the delicate desert aquifer system shared by Algeria, Libya and Tunisia. “Everyone in the world knows that this is dangerous and there are places in the west where this is forbidden,” said Fatiha Touni, a schoolteacher who has emerged as a leader of the movement. “We are not people to be experimented on. All we have is our water — we need it to water our crops and feed our animals.”
The protests, which have garnered widespread attention on Arab television channels and on social media, show no signs of abating. In Algeria, which ranks third or fourth in the world in recoverable shale gas reserves, with more than 700tn cubic feet spread across six basins, they have opened a wider discussion about the management of resources.
“We have never seen this kind of topic be the subject of a national debate,” said Imad Mesdoua, an analyst at Africa Matters, the London-based risk consultancy. “It is forcing Algerians to address the topic of what we actually want to do with our resources.”
Protests over environmental concerns in the Arab world are relatively rare, although a few have made an impact. One success was in the United Arab Emirates, where protests by rural tribes against alleged environmental and infrastructural damage from the mining of the Hajar mountains that traverse the border with Oman led to tighter regulation of the industry.
Others have been less successful. Sporadic environmental initiatives to clean up polluted waters in Lebanon — including at a river that turned blood-red because of chemical run-off — have gone nowhere.
The protests in Algeria began just days after a national broadcast on December 27 announced a successful test drill near Ain Salah.
Mohamed Kasemi, an engineer at state-owned Sonatrach, said he became worried about fracking after the government included plans for shale extraction in a 2013 law that passed with little debate. “When we started to look at what shale gas is, that is when we started to fight,” he said.
The authorities have described the protesters as agents of foreign powers and insisted the project will go ahead. “All energy sources, whether conventional or not, are a gift from God and it is our duty to use them for the development of the country, whilst strictly respecting the environment and taking all necessary health precautions,” Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algerian president, said last month. Abdelmalek Sellal, prime minister, insisted the country was “staying on course regarding the exploration of unconventional hydrocarbons, including shale gas”. In addition to Halliburton and Sonatrach, France’s Total is involved in the exploration efforts.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves pumping large volumes of water mixed with sand and chemicals deep underground at high pressure to fracture the shale rock and release trapped gas. Environmentalists question the safety of the chemicals and the potential impact on water supplies.
The protests have spread to other parts of the country, including the capital — becoming a cause for longtime opponents of Algeria’s government as well those in the south who complain that the country’s coastal cities receive an unfair share of resources. “The south, with which we stand in solidarity today, is a victim of injustice and uncared for,” Ali Benflis, opposition leader and a former prime minister, was quoted as saying at the protests in Algiers. “The people have become tired with authoritarian rule.”
Ms Touni, the protest leader, said perceived corruption and anger about how the government distributes resources from Algeria’s vast energy resources had contributed to doubts about the project.
“Our protest is not about the economy or more jobs — the state has been making these promises for 50 years,” she said.
Additional reporting by Nejma Rondeleux in Ain Salah and Algiers, Pilita Clark in London, Simeon Kerr in Dubai and Erika Solomon in Beirut
