Moroccan Minister of Equipment and Water Nizar Baraka said that his country is working to accelerate investments in water desalination plants, water transport projects and new dams to alleviate the effects of continuous drought and meet the increasing demand from agriculture and cities.
The droughts that passed through the country have drained water resources, reduced the volume of national livestock flocks, and contributed to the inflation of food prices and high unemployment rates.
Morocco operates 17 water desalination plants. There are 4 other stations under construction, and it intends to build 9 other stations, with the aim of reaching a total energy of 1.7 billion cubic meters annually by 2030, according to Baraka in a conference on water challenges in the country, held in Casablanca on Thursday.
Baraka added that the desalinated water will not be used to grow wheat due to the concerns related to the cost and the size of the agricultural lands concerned, but it will provide more dams water for internal farms.
Baraka stressed that the improvement of rain this year (2025), although it is still less than average, led to a high rate of dams to 39.2% as of June 11, from 31% in the previous year.
Despite the scarcity of water for many years, agriculture has expanded using groundwater. “There was a mismatch between the frequency of agricultural policy and the water policy … and this disparity was exacerbated by climate change,” Baraka said.
The Moroccan minister added that the cultivation of crops that consume large quantities of water, such as watermelon, was banned in “Tata” and was reduced by 75% in “Zagora”, which are two main desert regions for production in the southeast.
With uneven rainfall across the country, a major waterway will actually connect the western northwest water to Rabat and Casablanca, by 2030 to fill the dams that support farmers in the areas affected by drought in Doukkala and Tadla.
The project also includes the construction of a 1400 -km electricity line by 2030 to deliver renewable energy in the south to water desalination plants throughout the country, which will greatly help reduce water costs, according to Baraka.
Confronting climate change
Morocco had launched the middle of last year the construction of the Casablanca Station for Sea Water Desalination, which is the major in the African continent, where it will require investments in the range of 650 million dollars, which helps supply 7.5 million people with water.
In August 2023, the “Water Road” channel was opened around the surplus of the Spo basin, which was in the Atlantic Ocean to the Abi Raqraq Basin to provide drinking water to Rabat residents and neighboring cities, including north of Casablanca.
The rains in 6 consecutive years decreased by 75% compared to the usual average, as well as the temperature at 1.8 degrees last year (2024), which exacerbated the severity of evaporation.
It is estimated that the per capita water share in Morocco decreased from 2500 cubic meters to 650 cubic meters per person in an ordinary year, a share that is expected to decrease due to the scarcity of water, in order to classify Morocco among the countries where it is expected to reach 500 cubic meters per person.
According to the estimates of the World Bank, the agriculture based on rain represents about 80% of the cultivated area in Morocco, and the impact of climate change on the sector may lead to the migration of 1.9 million people towards cities in the next 30 years.