Algeria accuses Morocco of deliberately polluting a major dam near their border

Today (Tuesday), the Dutch Embassy in Tunisia announced the provision of funding worth 61 million euros in the form of a donation to Tunisia, which will be directed to protecting its beaches from the repercussions of climate change, according to what the German News Agency reported. According to the embassy, ​​the funding will be directed to restoring the eroded beaches on the coasts of Bizerte, Sousse-Monastir, northeastern Djerba Island, and the Beni Khiar and Yasmine Hammamet area in the state of Nabeul, by nourishing them with marine sand.

Economic activities, fishing and housing, and the repercussions of climate change, are among the main factors that led to the deterioration of areas of the coast in Tunisia, which led to damage to the environment and biodiversity.

A World Bank study, covering the period between 1948 and 2016, showed that Tunisia loses the equivalent of 70 centimeters of its coast annually, which is a high rate compared to the global average. The Netherlands is a world leader in water management, disinfection, port sanitation and coastal protection. The embassy said that the funding will be through the Dutch “Invest International” foundation, to strengthen the Tunisian coastal protection program, which is also supported by Germany.

On Tuesday, Algeria accused Morocco of deliberately polluting waterways feeding a major dam near their common border, while Interior Minister Ibrahim Mourad described this matter as a “systematic attack,” according to what was reported by the official Algerian News Agency (WAJ).

Algerian officials who went to an area near the border in the state of Tlemcen in the west of the country said that polluted water coming from neighboring Morocco was flowing into the Hammam Boughrara Dam, which is a vital water resource in the region.

Murad, who headed a ministerial delegation to inspect the area, stressed that “this phenomenon is not innocent, and is considered a systematic attack.” He added: “These concerns will be raised to the country’s higher authorities to take the necessary measures with the competent bodies at the national and international levels,” according to what was reported by the Algerian News Agency.

For his part, Karim Arab, head of the National Observatory for Environment and Sustainable Development in Algeria, stated that analyzes revealed the presence of pollutants that included nitrates, ammonia, and heavy metals. The agency quoted him as saying, “The environmental situation of the dam is very worrying.” The Moroccan authorities did not immediately comment on these statements. According to a study conducted in 2021, the dam’s capacity is 177 million cubic meters, and it meets the water needs of more than 1.2 million people in the region.

Algerian parliamentarians described the case as a “cross-border attack,” calling for it to be brought before international bodies and courts, according to what the official agency reported. In 2021, Algeria decided to sever its diplomatic relations with Rabat after years of tension due to the Sahara conflict, noting that the land borders between the two countries have been closed since 1994.

Egyptian Minister of Transport Kamel Al-Wazir admitted that “there are errors in the railway work system in Egypt.” He said in his response to a meeting in the House of Representatives, on Tuesday, regarding railway accidents: “We acknowledge that there are mistakes, and there will be mistakes, but our role is to reduce them,” referring to “the importance of continuing to work to address shortcomings and reduce the possibility of accidents.”

The collision of two trains, on Sunday, in the area between the Kafr Ammar and Al-Raqqa stations, in Al-Ayat, Giza Governorate, caused the death of 7 people and the injury of 125 others, according to the Ministry of Health.

Over the past few hours, parliamentary demands have been raised to dismiss the Minister of Transport after repeated train accidents in the Al-Ayat area. Senator Basil Adel, head of the Awareness Party, called for “the need for the minister to bear political responsibility and submit his resignation after the Al-Ayat accident.” He said that “the recurrence of train accidents requires that there be a moral responsibility as well, to protect the lives of citizens.”

Adel explained to Asharq Al-Awsat that “there are precedents of train accidents in Egypt that resulted in the resignation of transport ministers,” noting that “the current minister spent huge amounts of money and attracted many loans, with the aim of developing the railway facility, and despite that, the accidents were repeated.” Adel pointed out that “among the goals of the current Minister of Transport that he announced in 2019 is to develop the signaling and automatic control system to secure the movement of trains,” and noted that “the Minister of Transport had many opportunities to address the deficiencies in the railways.”

This is not the first time that the Al-Ayat region has witnessed a tragic train accident. There have been numerous collision incidents and train cars leaving the railway line. The most prominent of these incidents was a train fire in 2002, which led to the death of about 361 people and the injury of about 66 others, and at that time caused the resignation of the Minister of Transport, Ibrahim Al-Dumiri.

For his part, the Minister of Transport responded to parliamentary criticism by “talking about plans to develop the railway facility in recent years.” He said, while attending a meeting of the “Transport and Communications Committee” in the House of Representatives, on Tuesday, that “the process of development and modernization will continue even if he leaves office.”

The Egyptian Public Prosecution announced preliminary results of investigations into the accident, and said that “the collision occurred as a result of the failure of the Raqqa station controller and its superintendent to monitor the control panel for the movement of trains.” It indicated in its testimony, on Monday evening, that “the technical examination of the automatic control devices in the trains and the station proved that the conductor of one of the trains (Train No. 134) disabled the train’s automatic control system.”

The Public Prosecution’s statement stated that “the superintendent and controller of the Al-Raqqa station admitted in the investigations that they had failed to perform their duty in monitoring the train traffic control board.” The statement explained that “the controller had tampered with the signal book to hide the evidence of his failure.” Therefore, the “prosecution” decided to imprison the station controller and superintendent, and to detain the injured assistant conductor of train No. (134) until he could be interrogated.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi had directed “to quickly investigate the circumstances of the accident and hold accountable anyone proven to be negligent.”

Following the “Al-Ayat accident,” parliamentarians called in briefing requests and parliamentary questions for the necessity of “holding the Minister of Transport accountable for the causes of the accident and demanding his dismissal.”

The head of the “Transport and Communications Committee” in the House of Representatives, Waheed Qarqar, said before the committee’s meeting on Tuesday that “there is no ceiling in discussions with the Minister of Transport,” and stressed that he “will not place restrictions on asking questions or directing criticism to the minister.”

The Minister of Transport spoke before the committee about his “implementation of a comprehensive plan to develop the railway system since he took office in 2019,” and said that “the development process requires providing the necessary financial appropriations, and that the minister’s political responsibility is to request the required appropriations, work to implement the development plan, follow up on its results, and submit a report on it.”

Kamel Al-Wazir assumed the Ministry of Transport portfolio in March 2019 by decision of the Egyptian President, after accepting the resignation of former Transport Minister Hisham Arafat, following a train tractor explosion at the main train station in the Ramses area in Cairo.

The minister pointed out that “the process of developing and modernizing the railway system cost about 810 billion pounds (one dollar equals 53.2 pounds),” stressing that “the development process contributed to raising the number of passengers on trains to 1.2 million passengers annually.”

Regarding the results of the Public Prosecution’s investigations that spoke of the malfunctions of the automatic control system, the Egyptian Minister of Transport said that “the malfunction of the automatic control system is linked to an exceptional incident resulting from a heavy rain wave,” noting that “in this case we are faced with two options. The first is to continue the movement of trains with the possibility of them being exposed to the risk of collision, or to take exceptional measures to secure the operating movement, which is what actually happened.” He also stated that “the total value of foreign loans allocated to railway projects amounts to about 5.1 billion dollars, through soft development loans whose interest rates range between 0.15 percent and 1.7 percent, with grace periods of up to 10 years and repayment periods of up to 30 years.”