diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index dc321a04e64be46fa92961b0aa7099c11ee7778f..6f77178cb0d0e659ead22aa36ef0a896117b87c9 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ Build-Depends:
  libx11-dev,
  libxcb1-dev,
  locales <!nocheck> | locales-all <!nocheck>,
- meson,
+ meson (>= 0.49.0),
  pandoc,
  zlib1g <!nocheck>,
 Build-Depends-Indep:
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index e1840a75ff8e3df3b2fdbc028a9a067937b7612e..3fa1a541b9da2c0afc82243252c442016d0b5c47 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ project(
     'cpp_std=c++11',
     'warning_level=2',
   ],
+  meson_version : '>=0.49.0',
 )
 add_languages('cpp')