Rabat – For the sixth consecutive year, Morocco is experiencing another year of drought, and last year was the worst drought the Kingdom has seen in 40 years. The government's priority has become the search for new and innovative measures to achieve water security and meet the demand for potable water.
What is the current assessment of water resources in Morocco?
Morocco is classified among the countries suffering from water stress, and surface water resources are estimated at 18 billion cubic meters in the average year, while groundwater represents 20% of the water resources obtained by the Kingdom.
The per capita share of water is less than 650 cubic meters per year, compared to 2500 cubic meters in 1960, and this amount is expected to fall below 500 cubic meters by 2030.
Morocco experienced a rainfall deficit between 2018 and 2022, resulting in a strong drop in water flows to dams.
The water deficit reached almost 85% in the 2021-2022 season, as the reserve of irrigated water reached 900 million cubic meters in 2022 compared to an average of 3.4 billion cubic meters between 2009-2017, while the groundwater deficit reached a sharp level, decreasing by between 3 and 6 meters.
Morocco suffers from rising temperatures due to climate change (Al Jazeera)
How did the country get to this situation?
In 70 years, the kingdom has witnessed 20 dry seasons, along with increasing temperatures due to climate change, and although drought is not a new natural phenomenon for Morocco, population growth has made its impact more serious and greater, explained Abdelhakim Filali, a professor of climatology and research on environmental and water issues.
Al-Filali added – in an interview with Al Jazeera Net – that 40% of arable water is wasted due to the obsolescence of irrigation channels and underground leakage.
For her part, parliamentarian Naima al-Fathawi, a member of the thematic working group in charge of evaluating water policy in the House of Representatives, believes that the absence of a strategy governing human activity, especially in the field of agriculture, has exacerbated the crisis, as many environmental associations hold farmers responsible for crops such as watermelon and avocado, given that these crops consume more than 15 million cubic meters each year and have caused groundwater depletion.
What is the status of the dams?
Morocco currently has 150 large dams with a storage capacity of 19.1 billion cubic meters, while 17 dams are still in the process of completion, in addition to 137 medium dams and 129 small dams.
The dams stock on May 11 reached 5214 million cubic meters, with a filling rate of 32%, compared to 34% during the same period last year.
The Ministry of Equipment and Water has launched a project to link dams with the aim of transferring the surplus from one dam to another.
Next summer, the connection between the Sebou water basin, the Bouregreg basin and the um al-Rabie basin is supposed to be completed, in order to avoid wasting between 500 and 800 million cubic meters of water that flows into the sea without benefiting from it, and work to invest it in the areas most in need of drinking water or agriculture.
What are the Kingdom's programs to address drought and water shortages?
Water resources are a priority issue in the country and receive the attention of the highest authority in the country, as King Mohammed VI of Morocco has devoted an important space in his speeches on several occasions on this subject, holding sessions with the government to monitor the progress and implementation of projects.
In view of the climatic and water situation, which this year negatively affected the conduct of the agricultural season, an amount of 143 billion dirhams (the dollar is equivalent to about 10 dirhams) has been allocated to the program to combat the effects of drought.
This program includes:
- Linking water basins project.
- Programming new dams to increase storage capacity by 6.6 billion cubic meters of fresh water.
Accelerating non-conventional water bottling projects by programming seawater desalination plants.
Lokos Valley is the main river in northern Morocco (island)
Can seawater desalination plants be relied upon as an alternative?
Morocco has 9 seawater desalination plants that produce about 147 million cubic meters per year, in addition to 3 plants that produce water for agricultural and industrial production.
53% of the water produced at these plants is used for potable water, 23% for industrial production, and 24% for agricultural production.
Morocco aspires to complete 20 plants by 2030, reaching the goal of saving about 1.3 billion cubic meters of water.
According to climate researcher Mohamed Benabou, these stations have become an indispensable strategic choice in light of the scarcity of water resources.
He added – in his speech to Al Jazeera Net – that the government is working to accelerate the completion of 7 stations will be ready to work within two or 3 years, pointing out that despite its high cost, it will enable the provision of water to a number of major cities threatened by the specter of drinking water such as Casablanca and Marrakech.
How can water be conserved in agriculture?
The agricultural sector is the largest water consumer at 87%, so the Ministry of Agriculture has moved towards modernizing the irrigation system and launching programs to encourage drip irrigation to avoid wasting water resources.
The area equipped for drip irrigation has now expanded to 770,160 hectares from 2008,<> in <>, enabling Morocco to conserve <> billion cubic meters of water per year for agriculture.
The Ministry of Agriculture aims to reach the target of irrigating 2030 million hectares with drip irrigation by 1 out of 6.<> million hectares of cultivated area.
In addition, the ministry has turned to wastewater treatment and reuse it to irrigate green spaces and agricultural lands.
According to the Ministry of Equipment, the increase in the volume of treated water production increased from 30 million cubic meters to 100 million cubic meters.
What about alternative crop projects that are resistant to climate change?
The Ministry of Agriculture promotes the adoption of drought-resistant crops adapted to the climate change in Morocco.
In March, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the National Research Institute (NRIN) announced the development of six new varieties of durum wheat and barley that are more drought-resistant. Other crops that do not require large water resources are encouraged in a number of areas such as quinoa, carob, cacti, olives and others.
Are these projects enough to address water scarcity?
Parliamentarian Naima Al-Fathawi stresses the need to avoid the painful scenario related to the transition from water stress to water scarcity, by changing the state's approach to addressing the water problem and moving towards making 60% of water resources the source of seawater desalination, especially since the country overlooks two seafronts, and not relying only on the stock of dams and groundwater that have been depleted.
Al-Fatah stressed the need to be effective in implementing the planned programs according to a specific timetable, given the current issue and its impact on the daily lives of citizens and the national economy.
On the other hand, Mohamed Benabou believes that in addition to the major projects that have been launched to provide water reserves to spare the country the specter of thirst, the rationalization of water resources is the most important and effective step to deal with the water scarcity crisis.
For his part, Abdul Hakim Al-Filali believes that the announced measures have a strategic dimension that will mitigate water drought, and stresses the importance of continuing to search for innovative ways to conserve water.