Foggara a traditional system of the groundwater catchment in algeria

The evolution of the economy and society has for several years crystallized around the water all needs (economic and human). The Algerian Sahara is one of the largest deserts in the world and it is a very arid area, where Surface water is very rare (irregular rainfall) and ground waters have a fossil character and very few renewable. There are a few million years, the flora and fauna were rich and varied. Climate change to desertification increasingly, led the people; living in this region or to migrate to wetter areas. either to adapt to new lifestyles. This adaptation was related to the presence or absence of water. The people who did not emigrate are grouped in areas of natural outlets of aquifers where the groundwater level is located at shallow depths and could be exploited by technical means available. This lead to two distinct modes of existence: • One sedentary around springs and wells drilled by hand, allows the creation of agricultural units such as regions of Touat-Gourara-Tidikelt or palm groves were able to develop through the collection system of the aquifer of the Continental intercalary by the digging of foggaras. • The other, nomadic lives along the path marked out by the water points that exist.The foggara is one way to exploit that allowed groundwater installing and maintaining this oasis, whose primary role was to offer travellers and caravans the final stage before crossing of the great the south. The traditional irrigation system foggara in the Algerian Sahara has helped the transition from nomadic to a sedentary lifestyle. The ingeniousness of the method lies in its conception and its adaptation to the Saharan conditions and climate.