Morocco Breaks Ground on Massive Wind-Powered Desalination Plant for Agriculture

With a total cost of 1.98 billion dirhams, the project involves the construction of a desalination unit to irrigate 5,000 hectares of arable land, reports Le Matin. The irrigation network will be installed over a distance of about 115 km.

Announced in 2016 as part of the development program for the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab region, the mega-project of wind-powered desalination for irrigation in Dakhla will be carried out in 48 months in the form of a public-private partnership (PPP).

Private operators selected following two international calls for tenders are in charge. The mission assigned to them by the Ministry of Agriculture is to co-finance, design, build and manage the future wind-powered desalination unit as well as the irrigation infrastructure, under "better" technical, economic and financial conditions.

Why such a project for Dakhla? According to the explanations of the Ministry of Agriculture, this region, which is rich in agricultural potential, is subject to increasing pressure on groundwater resources, which are considered fossil and not very renewable. As a result, the Dakhla water table level is declining, with salinization of the latter. This undoubtedly constitutes a threat to the development of agriculture, hence the need to implement this mega-project.