"Southern Algeria protests fracking plans", 30 Jan 2015

Ain Salah in the extreme south of Algeria has been witnessing, since Dec. 31, large protest waves demanding the government-owned petrogas company, Sonatrach, to stop exploiting shale gas, which was test launched in the region (Ahnet basin, Tamanrasset province).

...Ain Salah citizens refuse the exploitation of shale gas because of its environmental and health hazards. Extracting these nontraditional hydrocarbons using the technique of “hydraulic fracturing” requires huge amounts of water, which threatens depleting aquifers. This technique requires pumping toxic chemicals into the underground, which would result in completely destroying cultivation of known oases and spreading some malignant diseases like cancer (the health repercussions of the French nuclear experiments in the Algerian desert between 1960 and 1966 live on)...