ABSTRACT
Between Friday 9th and Saturday 10th November 2001, the Algerian coast was struck by prolonged and intense storms which caused death and damage in various parts of the country. Nowhere else was the toll higher than in the capital itself. On the dawn of Saturday, a chunk of land collapsed from the Bouzareah hill on Algiers’ heights, transforming itself into a mudslide which submerged the main highway and followed it right into the city’s western districts, taking anything to be found on its course into the sea. The way the authorities responded to the calamity provides a case study of the role played by the associative sector in Algeria’s process of economic reform and state retreat.
