Planning and systematic management of water resources by the WEAP model, case of the Mabtouh watershed (northwestern Algeria)

Water management remains a complex task due to the multiplicity of users-consumers, which necessitates the use of planning tools and decision support in a rigorous manner. The objective of the present study is to find an alternative solution to the water use conflict applied to a scale of a hydrographic unit. Our choice focused on the Mebtouh River watershed (1306 km2), where there is a chronic water shortage. With an irrigated perimeter of 8200 ha and an urban area with a regional dimension, the hydraulic system is based on a Dam (Cheurfa) with a capacity of 83 hm3 and diversions by pumping over the river. The methodology adopted is the application of the WEAP software, with a view to constructing a water resource allocation model by 2050. The data set consists of the physical parameters of the study area, hydroclimatic records for the reference year (2015), and the estimation of urban and agricultural water demand sites. The results obtained by the WEAP model applied to our study area confirm the validation of the data used. Therefore, it is timely to develop a water resources management tool to reduce user-consumer tensions at the planned planning timeline.