Climate change impacts: Morocco reduces drinkable water flow in some provinces

In Morocco, which the World Bank declared one of the most water-stressed countries in the world, the Water Distribution, Electricity and Liquid Sanitation Administration of the Provinces of El Jadida and Sidi Bennour (RADEEJ) announced that it is forced to reduce the flow of drinkable water starting from July 25 due to the impacts of climate change.

In a statement issued on Friday, RADEEJ attributed the decline in rain precipitation across the Kingdom to climate change, which led to a decline in water in dams amid increasing consumption rates.

The water in dams as of April 2022 did not exceed 34.1 percent, compared to 50.82 percent in the same period last year, stated Moroccan Minister of Equipment and Water Nizar Baraka on April 14.

The annual availability of renewable water resources per capita in Morocco declined from 2,560 cubic meters to about 620 cubic meters in the period between 1960 and 2020, said the World Bank in a report on July 20.“During the same period, the Kingdom built more than 120 large dams, increasing by tenfold total water storage capacity. However, the actual volume of water stored in the country’s main dams has declined for most of the past decade. In fact, the overall water level was about 33 percent when the latest drought hit the Kingdom, posing a threat to water security in some of Morocco’s river basins and prompting the authorities to adopt various emergency measures,” the World Bank said.

In March 2022, Minister Baraka announced that the water share per capita in Morocco does not exceed 600 cubic meters annually, adding that this average reaches 300 cubic meters in some areas across the Kingdom.

“Morocco is expected to lose 30 percent of water imports by 2050,” Baraka said. The ministry also attributed the decline of the water share per capita to the lack of a developing water sector as had been stipulated in the Kingdom’s development strategy that was formulated in 2009.

Baraka revealed that the 2009 national strategy proposed the construction of 57 large dams between 2009 and 2030 nationwide but that only nine of them have been completed so far, Moroccan newspaper Hespress reported on March 1.

To mitigate the water stress impacts, Morocco had drawn up a plan for the supply of potable water and irrigation water over the period from 2020 to 2027, at a cost of $12 billion, which includes projects to pump groundwater in villages, Hespress reported.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit called for the necessity of water use rationalization and to reduce water consumption by users. He also said that preventing the use of potable water in watering green spaces and washing cars and public spaces is a must, Badil newspaper reported on Saturday.