Monument historique ou système bien vivant ? Les foggaras des oasis du Touat (Algérie) et leur réalimentation en eau par pompage

Abstract

Over the past five decades, several agricultural development programs based on the use of pumped groundwater were carried out in the Algerian Sahara. The increased groundwater use for the new irrigation schemes is often held responsible for the decline of the ancient foggara (or qanat, subterranean channels collecting groundwater diverted to oases) irrigation systems. However, the peasantry of the Touat, Gourara and Tidikelt regions continues to exploit a certain number of foggaras, sometimes even fed by pumped groundwater. The study of the Lahmeur oasis in the Touat region shows the new strategies developed by the oasis peasantry to adapt to recent transformations. Through a survey of five foggaras fed by a borehole, we analyze the conditions that made it possible to build a hybrid irrigation system and we show the capacity of the irrigation community to adapt this irrigation system to perpetuate its operation. This article aims to contribute to the recent debate on the renewal of oasis agriculture in the Algerian Sahara. It highlights some ruptures in the functioning of foggaras system, but also many continuities and adjustments made by the actors in a rapidly changing Saharan context.