Le ministère de l’Energie annonce l’ouverture d’une enquête urgente

Energy Ministry announces urgent investigation

Fire broke out on Tuesday at the Beni Saf desalination plant (Aïn Témouchent)

The competent security authorities have opened an urgent investigation to determine the causes of the fire that occurred on Tuesday at the “Chatt El Hilal” seawater desalination plant in Beni Saf in the wilaya of Aïn Témouchent, which affected the electrical cells of the plant, leading to the activation of the security systems that completely stopped the plant from operating, the Ministry of Energy and Mines said in a statement the day before yesterday, Thursday.
Thanks to the rapid and professional intervention of the Civil Protection teams, security and safety officers at the station, just 15 minutes after the fire broke out, the situation was immediately brought under control, the fire was completely extinguished at the electrical cells, without affecting other sections of the station whose production capacity is 200,000 m3/day. Thus avoiding, continued the same source, greater damage or even a catastrophe.
A crisis and monitoring unit, noted the same source, has been set up at the station in order to take the necessary measures by mobilizing all human and material resources to take immediate practical measures and work towards the partial restart of the station in the coming days, coinciding with the maintenance work of the station, in order to ensure the public service. In particular, specialized technicians from Sonatrach and Algerian Energy Company (AEC), in order to put the station back into service and ensure the continuity of the public water service. This will be done, added the press release from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, in the coming hours. The day before yesterday, Thursday, the AEC, a subsidiary of the Sonatrach group, which manages seawater desalination plants, announced in a press release the cessation of activity of the seawater desalination plant of Beni Saf, in the wilaya of Aïn Témouchent, following a fire which affected the electrical cell room.
“The fire broke out on Tuesday, July 16 at around 4:46 p.m. in an electrical cell of the seawater desalination plant and then spread, affecting three neighboring electrical cells. As soon as the security systems were activated, the entire station was shut down,” said the same source. Noting that the Civil Protection teams of the wilaya intervened 15 minutes after the fire and immediately took control of the situation, the same source said that the fire was brought under control and completely extinguished at the cell room level only.
Assuring that all human and material resources have been mobilized for the commissioning of the station, the AEC recalled that the Beni Saf seawater desalination plant in the wilaya of Aïn Témouchent, which has a production capacity of 200,000 m3/day, is among the 14 stations in Algeria.
Rabah M.