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Algeria Weighs Legal Options Over Cross-Border Pollution of Oued Mouilah

3 November 2026 · Algeria Now

ALGIERS — Algeria is preparing a scientific and legal file on the pollution of Oued Mouilah, a river that rises in Morocco and feeds a dam supplying a large part of western Algeria, and has not ruled out turning to international bodies. The idea emerged this week from an international colloquium on transboundary watercourses held in Tlemcen from 26 to 29 October. No proceedings have been launched.

What was said in Tlemcen

Mustapha Kamel Mihoubi, former water resources minister and professor at the National Higher School of Hydraulics, said Algeria would keep up its research to build a case founded on laboratory analyses and documented evidence. In his account, the water leaves Algerian territory in a natural state and returns polluted after crossing Morocco.

Participants heard allegations that waste from about 400 industrial units around the Moroccan city of Oujda reaches Oued Mouilah and the Hammam Boughrara dam in Tlemcen province, and that chemical concentrations exceed international standards many times over. These figures were presented at the event and are unverified. A Tlemcen biologist, Linda Abi Ayad, cited earlier studies showing cadmium at 0.03 to 0.06 milligrams per litre against a reference value of 0.01, and raised nitrate and phosphorus levels, which can trigger algal blooms. She stressed that the pollution has a cross-border dimension and called for monitoring from upstream to downstream.

The dam supplies Tlemcen, Maghnia and part of the neighbouring province of Aïn Témouchent. Estimates put the population exposed at close to two million. The dam's managers are testing, with the University of Biskra, a floating device that would track dissolved oxygen, aluminium and phosphates in real time.

The legal framework

The reference text is the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. It obliges riparian states to use shared waters equitably and reasonably and to take all appropriate measures to prevent significant harm to one another. Any claim would first have to prove where the contamination originates, who is responsible and what damage has been suffered, which is why Algerian experts speak of a file rather than a lawsuit.

No official Moroccan response to the allegations has been found.

Technical work comes first: sampling, water analyses and possibly the diversion of flows during pollution peaks, an option that would demand heavy funding. Only if the evidence holds would a diplomatic démarche or recourse to international mechanisms follow.

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Algeria Weighs Legal Options Over Cross-Border Pollution of Oued Mouilah

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