SUMMARY
The water management in mountain areas is a major concern in Algeria; due to the twin problems it poses, namely, siltation of dams and the degradation of soil fertility. To this end, a new form of organization of water management at the watershed scale, in this case the 'associations of common interest (ACI)', established by the waters code.The purpose of this paper is to evaluate this new experience of water management at the watershed level, setting up for a decade to identify the constraints related to the mode of management water resources. The successful experimental site was covered mountains of Beni-Chougrane (Mascara) because of the fragility of its water resources and soil and the importance of investments in terms of SMH (small and medium hydraulic). The methodology adopted in this work is based refers to a sample of nine (9) small dams, whose management is entrusted to private farmers, supposed to be organized in ACI. The results of these investigations show that this form of organization remains far short of the objectives expected by the government, which leads to degradation of hydro-systems, see conflicts of multi-use consequences.