The Figuig Dam: A Blatant Violation of International Water Law and a Deliberate Act of Water Warfare Against Algeria

Morocco’s decision to construct one of its largest strategic dams in Figuig, only a few kilometers from the Algerian border, is neither accidental nor driven by purely domestic development considerations. It is a calculated and hostile political act, aimed at establishing unilateral control over shared transboundary water resources, in flagrant disregard of international law and the most basic principles of good-neighborly relations.

The so-called “Khenk Kro” Dam, with a storage capacity exceeding one billion cubic meters and an estimated cost of approximately 120 million US dollars, is officially presented by Rabat as a cornerstone of its “water security strategy.” In reality, it constitutes a direct threat to Algeria’s water, environmental, agricultural, and human security, particularly in the region of Béni Ounif, as well as Béchar and the wider south-western Algerian territories.

From a legal standpoint, this project represents a serious breach of international norms governing shared watercourses. The 1997 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, which reflects customary international law, establishes three binding obligations for riparian states:

• The principle of equitable and reasonable utilization;
• The obligation to prevent significant transboundary harm;
• The duty of prior notification, information sharing, and consultation regarding any major project likely to have cross-border impacts.

In the case of the Figuig Dam, all three principles have been deliberately violated. No formal consultation with Algeria has taken place, no joint hydrological or environmental impact assessment has been conducted, and no legally binding guarantees have been offered to prevent harm to downstream Algerian regions.

The consequences, however, are entirely predictable. The massive upstream retention of water will inevitably lead to a severe and long-term reduction in cross-border flows, resulting in the gradual drying up of wadis, the degradation of agricultural land, accelerated depletion of groundwater reserves, and ultimately forced environmental displacement in an already fragile and arid region.

This is therefore not a neutral infrastructure project. It is a case of strategic weaponization of water resources. Morocco is transforming a shared natural resource into a tool of geopolitical coercion, exploiting hydrological asymmetry to impose faits accomplis on its eastern neighbor. Such conduct amounts, in substance if not in form, to a silent but systematic water war, whose effects may prove irreversible.

The justifications advanced by Moroccan authorities—flood control, aquifer recharge, or regional agricultural development—do not alter the central reality: significant transboundary harm is unavoidable and knowingly accepted. As the dam reaches full capacity over the coming years, the natural hydrological equilibrium of south-western Algeria will be methodically dismantled.

In this context, silence or inaction would carry grave consequences. The Figuig Dam constitutes a dangerous precedent that demands a firm, multidimensional Algerian response:

• Legally, through the activation of United Nations mechanisms and, if necessary, recourse to the International Court of Justice;
• Diplomatically, by exposing the unilateral and coercive nature of this project on the international stage;
• Strategically, to safeguard Algeria’s long-term water sovereignty and national security.

Water is not a technical detail nor a bargaining chip. It is a core component of sovereignty, stability, and survival. By choosing to instrumentalize it as a means of pressure, Morocco assumes full responsibility for opening a new front of regional confrontation—one that will ultimately be judged under international law and historical accountability.

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By Belgacem Merbah

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