Kabylia, as all north of Algeria, has been suffering, since three days now, from a big heat wave; the temperature has come close to 45 °C! A summer which promises to be scorching and that raises more than a worry: fires, lack of drinking water, various illness, etc.

Kabylia, though having huge reservoirs of drinking water, owing to its rocky aspect, already suffers from thirst during more merciful summers. The dam of Taksebt, located at some kilometers from Tizi-Ouzou, was already sidetracked to the capital Algiers and the other one, the dam of Tilesdit, situated in Bouira, will soon be destined to quench the population of the largest town in Algeria. Of course, the Kabylians will have their part, but their real need will never be covered in such hot periods, as the amount reserved to them is very little. Already, long tails around the public fountains (taliwin) has begun to be observed in our divested villages. Sometimes, to have one’s part of drinking water, one must stand in a queue during half of a day. The piling up of a very big number of persons around the same fountain which, besides, is very “tightfisted”, causes inevitably interminable disputes.

The heat wave of this year announces other even more frightening things: fires. Our forests already destroyed last year by fires caused by the bombings of the governmental army (ANP) and the explosions of the antipersonnel mines spread here and there by the Islamists groups, risk being transformed into huge infernos. Forest fires have already started in some regions of Kabylia, in Bouira notably, where the climate is suffocating these last three days.

Lack of water is also the reason for the appearance of some diseases. For lack of hygiene, the environment pullulates with microbes and viruses which cause or transmit various diseases. Journalists report that rabies which affects dogs and the blue tongue which affects cattle nowadays wreaks havoc in some most divested villages of Kabylia. In addition, owing to the increase in temperature, rats to make run away even the fiercest cats leave the sewers which serve to them as lodges and assault the houses of the human beings in the hope of finding some drops of water to quench their thirst with.

And as though all these sufferings were not enough to make life bitter for the Kabylians, drops in voltage happen so often day and night, plunging our cities and villages in darkness and causing damages as well for electronic and electrical equipment as for products requiring refrigeration. In other words, in the absence of true solutions (there often lack serious solution to the Kabylian problems), the authorities very often have recourse to power cuts in contempt of the inhabitants of Kabylia, while, elsewhere in Algeria, as the press reported these last days, new power stations were created to the up-most delight of the subdued and “beni-naam” Arabs.

Written by: D.Messaoudi