The purpose of this paper is to present an investigation on the relevance of the historical water legislation which would adapt to the modern sustainable water management. It is mainly based on the book by Ernest Feline related to the qanat system in the arid M'Zab valley in southern Algeria. It also refers to some related lectures on the traditional water legislation in the Sahara region and more generally on the Islamic water jurisprudence which does reveal a specific culture perpetuated through a relevant adaptation of al-hisba principles. Subsequently the present paper argues that if updated and adapted, the traditional knowledge can serve current water management issues within the framework of the water sensitive urbanism associated with the integrated water resource management. With this respect the spatial concept called ‘harim al-ma’ and the traditional community actions towards the qanat system can contribute to protecting water quality and improving public health.
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Research Article|
July 30 2014
Traditional qanat related jurisprudence in Algeria Available to Purchase
Nadjat Aroua
1Polytechnic School of Architecture and Urbanism of Algiers (EPAU), Avenue Mohamad Alilat n°37. Kouba, Algiers 16308, Algeria
E-mail: [email protected]
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Water Supply (2014) 14 (6): 1142–1149.
Article history
Received:
March 27 2014
Accepted:
July 16 2014
Citation
Nadjat Aroua; Traditional qanat related jurisprudence in Algeria. Water Supply 1 December 2014; 14 (6): 1142–1149. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/ws.2014.076
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