Friday, April 20, 1962
University Daily Kansan
Page 5
North Africa Hindered by Arid Climate
By Richard Bonett
When man was less sophisticated than he is today concerning his physical environment, he imagined the universe to be molded out of only three elements: fire, water and air. Add to this trio blood and oil and you come pretty close to describing the elements comprising modern-day North Africa.
Arab North Africa (Al Maghrib al 'Arabi) includes the three states of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, all sharing a common historical experience, dialect, and colonial tradition. Also included, because of racial and Linguistic similarities, is Libya, although in many ways this nation is as distinct from North Africa, to the west, as it is from the Middle East, bordering Libya on the east.
THESE NORTH AFRICAN nations include most, if not all, of that vast wasteland called the Sahara desert, extending as far south as Senegal, the Niger River, and Timbuktu. Three of the states comprising the area—Libya, Morocco and Tunisia—are independent. Algerian independence means the end of almost eight years of bloody struggle between France and Algeria.
Since World War II a considerable amount of blood has been spilled as a result of fiery nationalist sentiments that have won independence for three of the North African states and is promising independence for the fourth. In time then, fire and blood may play less of a role in the area.
But water, or the lack of it, has been a determining factor in the area's history and development and will continue to play an important role. In future years, perhaps oil and gas, vast reserves of it in the Sahara, will be the predominant factors in the area.
NORTH AFRICA IS an immense quadrilateral of mountains and high table lands bounded on the south by the Sahara and on the other three sides by the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. The width is harder to fix, for neither the physical nor cultural boundaries have ever been made precise. The only fertile area in the region is a narrow coastal band of Mediterranean-styled countryside extending from the coast to from 100 to 300 miles inland. Following along the coastal region are the Atlas Mountains, cutting off the maritime strip from the desert.
The Atlas topography is uneven, particularly at nothern Morocco and Algeria. Peaks ranging up to 7,000 and 8,000 feet rise a few miles from the sea. Often the mountains abut the coast making the sea frontier as hostile as the desert area in some places. As a result of this terrain, short, swift rivers plunge down narrow gorges into the sea. There are no navigable rivers in the area.
From Tangier on the west to Tunisia on the east there are good harbors, but with the exception of Oran and Algiers, they lack easily accessible hinterlands of any size. Only in the eastern part of North Africa, from Tunis to Tripoli, is there a combination of good ports and flat, fertile back country.
RAINFALL IS a determining factor in the economic life of the area, which has a combined population of more than 30 million. But statistics do not present an accurate picture of the moisture problem. In general, North Africa is deficient in rainfall. But some parts have an unusable excess of precipitation. There is little rainfall regularly from year to year, and in some regions near the Sahara, one year's rainfall may be five to eight times that of the previous year. Most rain is disadvantageously concentrated in heavy bursts within a season of a few months, from October to March. Falling on semi-arid lands which have been baked during the rainless summers, much of the water runs off and is wasted. Only in the past decade have extensive water-retention techniques been used.
A 16-inch rain line, generally considered the minimum for agriculture without irrigation, covers most of the fertile North Morocco and the Atlas Mountains, reaching to the Mediterranean at the Algerian border because of a lowering in the mountain chain which allows the steppe to come almost to the sea. Rainfall, held down by the narrowness of the Mediterranean between Spain and Western Algeria, picks up again as
the sea widens to the east, and the 16-inch line dips down in Algeria to include the Aures Mountains, curving then to the northeast to reach the sea only 50 miles from Tunis. The Rif Mountain chain in Morocco along the Mediterranean and the northeastern part of Algeria near the Tunisian border have heavy rainfall or up to 60 inches a year. But these rugged and heavily forested areas are generally unsuited for agriculture.
AS WITH THE RAINFALL, the climate is not uniform. Summers are warm and winters are mild and rainy. But temperatures go up in the summer and down in the winter as one moves inland just a few miles. The valleys between the coast and the interior mountains often get the worst of both extremes. Occasionally, hot desert winds reign in the summer, bringing extremely high temperatures and a suffocating dust that means agricultural disaster.
Until the discovery of oil in the Algerian regions of the Sahara, all North African countries had an economy based primarily on agriculture of the Mediterranean type. Agricultural products made up most of the exports of the four countries, with cereals, wine, citrus, and olive oil heading the list. But the countries did have secondary mineral resources that helped balance adverse trade conditions. In Morocco and Algeria light and medium industries have been developed over the past decade and a half, including the canning of fish and vegetables, tanning, cellulose products, cement, glass, paper, and a growing textile industry. Thus, where water is concerned, all the countries of North Africa share a common problem. Irrigation of large areas in recent years had aided in the expansion of agriculture to feed ever-increasing populations with still something left over far export. But there is a definite limit to the amount of arable land. Each country carries a share of the burden of the Sahara. Thus far, however, only Algeria, and to a lesser extent Libya, have reaped any direct benefit from the Saharan riches.
SOME OF THE EARLY interpretations concerning the discovery of oil and gas in the Sahara in southern Algeria seem academic in the light of Algeria's successful struggle for independence. At one time it was believed that Tunisia and Morocco were lucky to win independence before the oil discoveries, and Algeria was correspondingly unlucky. The interpretation of the development was that oil would make the pacification of Algeria "worth the cost" to the French. Furthermore, many liberal-minded Frenchmen, who normally would be counted on to support an independence movement, responded to an enticing opportunity to purchase stock in Algerian oil ventures, thus making them "trustees of the nation's business."
While these particular theories did not seem to work out, the effect of Algerian oil on North Africa presents many problems. Once a fancy of French empire builders, the oil (and gas) has become a reality for the economic development of Algeria. Still, the blessing is not unmixed. The following includes a discussion of some advantages and special problems.
In the first place, enormous deposits of natural gas at Hassi Rmel, claimed as the world's third largest field, had provided Algeria with an opportunity to produce her own steel from iron ore in the Bone region. This ore was formerly exported to Britain and Germany. Ground was broken for a steel mill near Ouenza in 1960.
A 24-INCH PIPELINE has been constructed from the gas fields, in Southeast Algeria, to the coast near Relizane, where it divides with one section going to Arzew just east of Oran to serve a group of petrochemical industries, and the other line going eastward to Algiers and Bone. The pipelines and three pumping stations have a capacity of 400,000 cubic meters an hour.
These goals were retained, even after some of the others were allowed to whither away. As a matter of fact, the French government has put up more than one billion dollars in three years to keep the program going while private investment, responding to the uncertainty of the future, has failed to respond to the challenge. Still, tremendous progress appears to have been made.
These developments have occurred partly, at least, as a result of President Charles de Gaulle's "Constantine Plan" of 1958, which included among other social and economic reforms for Algeria, acceleration of the development of Saharan oil and gas and the establishment of metallurgical and chemical industries.
The quantity of gas at Hassi Rmel makes it apparent that even an industrialized Algeria cannot absorb it. So studies have been made with a view of extending the pipeline across the Mediterranean to Siely and Italy. If these plans are executed, as American Universities Field Staff expert Charles Gallagher points out, the interdependence of Algeria and Western Europe will be reinforced to a point where all the Common Market countries will have an abiding interest in seeing a peaceful and prosperous Algeria.
The counterpart of the Hassi Rmei gas is the oil of the Hassi Messaoud in Edjelé fields, already flowing at a considerable rate, and the Edjelé-Skhira (Tunisia) pipeline. These fields have a tested reserve of 600
million metric tons, or about 400 billion barrels. The flow from these fields is expected to reach 500,000 barrels per day this year. At least these were the plans in 1960. France made a profit of about $70 million in 1960 by consuming or selling off what it did not use of this oil. At that time, the field was producing about 35 millions barrels per year. That was also the first year that oil revenues were put back into local development as part of the Constantine Plan.
France is still committed to Middle Eastern oil, to which her industry is technically adapted, making it more profitable to market the Algerian production. The French goal of 500,000 barrels of Algerian oil per day this year is approximately the consumption rate in France. The 1965 target, in 1960, was 1 million barrels a day. Although revenues go back into Algeria from oil concessions at a much smaller rate than would be the case under an independent Algeria, these revenues are heavily overshadowed by French investment in the country. So France does have some justification for the contention that it is taking oil only
as part repayment for what it has given Algeria. Still the French will get no credit for anything they have done. The Algerians will always argue that without the revolution, nothing would have been done. The armed action that has taken place in Algeria has been more of a handicap to agriculture than to the oil exploitation.
Other lands are vitally interested in the Saharan riches, notably the black African territories of French West Africa, French Sudan (not independent Sudan), Niger, Chad, and Mauretania, all of which border on the Sahara from the south. The interest of these countries is mainly political.
The states more directly concerned are Morocco and Tunisia, both of which openly support Algeria's independence movement, and feel a decided pull toward the idea of a North African federation. It might be questionable, however, whether the shapers of a new Algeria will feel the need to share this wealth with their neighbors. Also to be considered is the fact that oil will make Algeria's role even more predominant in North Africa.
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