For several years, the Kingdom of Morocco has pursued a deliberate policy of provocation and hostility toward Algeria — a policy that extends far beyond rhetoric into tangible acts affecting Algeria’s water, environment, and social fabric.
While Rabat sheds crocodile tears over the suspension of the Maghreb–Europe Gas Pipeline, it has in fact been waging a silent war against Algeria through water deprivation, environmental pollution, and the export of narcotics — forming a coherent strategy aimed at undermining Algeria’s national security and stability.
1. Dams on the Border — A Deliberate Water War
Along the western border, Morocco has built dozens of dams on rivers and streams that flow naturally into Algerian territory. These constructions, undertaken without coordination or bilateral agreements, have caused an environmental disaster in the Béchar region. The reduced flow of the Guir River has directly threatened the Djorf Torba Dam, one of Algeria’s most vital reservoirs in the southwest.
The Kaddoussa Dam, commissioned in 2021 on the upper Guir River, drastically altered the hydrological balance, reducing water inflows to Algeria and intensifying drought conditions. This was not a technical coincidence — it was a calculated hydropolitical maneuver intended to suffocate Algeria’s environmental and agricultural sectors.
Such actions blatantly violate international principles governing shared water resources, which prohibit unilateral exploitation of transboundary rivers that cause harm to downstream nations.
Morocco’s policy thus amounts to an environmental and political offense, turning water — the source of life — into a weapon of pressure and aggression.
2. Environmental Pollution — A Silent Ecological Attack
In the north, the same hostile logic persists through the cross-border dumping of industrial waste. Reports have documented toxic discharges from factories in and around Oujda flowing toward the Algerian border, contaminating soil and water sources, and endangering local ecosystems.
This cannot be dismissed as negligence or accident. It is part of a targeted environmental sabotage campaign, designed to weaken Algeria’s ecological balance, damage its borderlands, and signal contempt for its environmental sovereignty.
It represents a modern form of asymmetric warfare — one waged not with bullets, but with toxins and waste.
3. Drugs as a Tool of Social Destabilization
Perhaps the most destructive front of this hybrid war is the narcotics front. Morocco, recognized internationally as the world’s largest producer of cannabis resin, has turned this illicit trade into a geopolitical weapon.
For years, organized networks have worked to flood Algeria with Moroccan cannabis, targeting Algerian youth with the clear goal of weakening society from within and undermining its moral and social cohesion.
This is a soft yet devastating form of warfare — complementing the hydric and environmental assaults by attacking Algeria’s most precious resource: its people.
4. Hypocrisy and Political Duplicity
Given this background, Morocco’s outcry over the 2021 suspension of the Maghreb–Europe Gas Pipeline (GME) is nothing short of hypocrisy.
How can a country that blocks water, pollutes the land, and poisons the youth of its neighbor pretend to be a victim of an energy decision made in full sovereignty by Algeria?
One cannot sabotage a neighbor’s lifelines while preaching “Maghreb unity” and “regional cooperation.”
This double standard exposes the moral bankruptcy of Moroccan diplomacy, which seeks compassion abroad while practicing hostility next door.
5. A Comprehensive Anti-Algerian Strategy
These actions are not isolated incidents. They form part of a coherent, long-term anti-Algerian doctrine pursued by the Moroccan regime — a hybrid war combining multiple dimensions:
- Water warfare — to strangle Algerian borderlands;
- Environmental pollution — to degrade Algeria’s ecosystem;
- Drug infiltration — to erode Algerian society from within;
- Information warfare — to distort Algeria’s image internationally.
This is not a simple diplomatic rivalry; it is a systematic campaign of hostility disguised as development and cooperation.
6. Algeria’s Response — Patience and Strength
Despite constant provocations, Algeria has demonstrated remarkable restraint and responsibility. It continues to secure its borders, protect its water resources, combat drug trafficking, and invest in sustainable environmental strategies.
But patience does not mean silence. It is time to name things as they are: Morocco has been engaging in a sustained campaign against Algeria that must be exposed at every diplomatic and international forum.
Algeria must therefore:
- Internationalize the shared water issue, demanding oversight of Morocco’s dam policies;
- Document and denounce border pollution, presenting evidence before global environmental bodies;
- Intensify anti-drug operations, dismantling networks operating inside and outside the country;
- Strengthen ecological and hydrological diplomacy, asserting Algeria’s full sovereignty and rights.
Conclusion — Water, Gas, and Sovereignty
Modern wars are no longer fought solely with weapons; they are fought with resources — water, environment, and information.
Morocco has turned these instruments into weapons in a campaign of attrition against Algeria.
Yet history has shown that Algeria does not bend — it resists, rebuilds, and prevails.
Just as it defended its gas and dignity, Algeria will defend its water, its land, and its youth.
Sovereignty is not negotiable, and those who gamble with nature and narcotics to undermine it will ultimately face the weight of their own hypocrisy and isolation.
By Belgacem Merbah
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