Morocco is currently experiencing the worst drought in three decades, resulting in sharply declining water reserves. According to hydrologists “50 cities are threatened by thirst”. As in France, the Kingdom is currently experiencing successive heat waves which have caused fires in various provinces.
With 620 cubic meters of water per inhabitant per year, Morocco is already well below the water shortage threshold, estimated by the WHO at 1,700 m3 per inhabitant per year. By way of comparison, water availability per capita in the 1960s was four times higher, at 2,600 m3.
This places the Cherifian kingdom in “structural water stress situation”, according to a World Bank analysis of the Moroccan economy. Economic growth undermined by Covid and then by the war in Ukraine will also be impacted in 2022 by drought.
The Minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka, clarified that the scarcity of water is due to the low level of the water table, which falls by 2 to 3 meters per year, and the drop in the level of water stored in reservoirs, which increased from 9.4 billion cubic meters in 2018 to 4.7 billion cubic meters this year.
Yet Morocco has multiplied its water storage capacity tenfold between 1960 and 2020 by building more than 120 dams. But on a national scale, these structures combine a filling rate of barely 28%. “the lowest level for four decades” says Mohamed Benabou, expert in climate and sustainable development, “Fifty cities are threatened by thirst”he laments.
Faced with the emergency, the authorities heavily rationed water consumption.
The watering of green spaces and golf courses is prohibited, as is the washing of cars and streets. Illegal withdrawals from wells, springs or watercourses are also prohibited and punished.
“We are facing a situation of water stress, the stored water is insufficient, we must take care of the resources we have”
Moulay Ahmed Afilal, Deputy Mayor of CasablancaPA
In December 2021, the Moroccan government approved an emergency plan which provides for the drilling of new wells and the establishment of seawater desalination plants. Morocco has scheduled the construction of 20 seawater desalination plants. here 2030 which should provide a good part of its drinking water needs, according to the Ministry of Equipment.
The other Achilles’ heel of the country is agriculture, which consumes 80% of the available water. Water use should be rationalized in this sector, which represents 14% of GDP.
Morocco “has tripled” its irrigated areas, resulting in increased water consumption, often to make arid areas cultivable. Should we spend this precious water to grow dates or tomatoes in the desert? LONG “Morocco Environment 2050″, for its part, calls on the government to rationalize the use of water in agriculture and to train small farmers. “We need a policy adapted to the current ecological emergency…”advised its president Salima Belmkeddem.