Traditional techniques for increasing the discharge from qanats in Algeria

Abstract

This paper discusses the evolution of the foggara in time and the methods adopted by farmers to increase the water parts of owners. Field works were conducted in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 in the oases of Timimoun and Adrar. Over 100 foggaras were visited. Surveys and interviews with the populations and the owners were conducted. Two ancestral methods are used by the farmers to increase the discharge of the foggara. This is an extension of part of the drainage gallery and the addition of one or more branch in the main gallery. Over time, the foggara to a single gallery evolves towards a foggara to several galleries in the form a ramified network of galleries.