Morocco Expands Water Supply with New Seawater Desalination Plants

A new seawater desalination plant will be operational in Laâyoune as early as the second half of 2021. According to the Director General of the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE), Abderrahim El Hafidi, it will help meet the drinking water needs of the inhabitants of this city and the surrounding cities until 2040. With a total cost of 370 million dirhams, and a production capacity of 26,000 m³/day, it will reinforce the production of 26,000 m³/day of the first plant and the 10,000 m³/day of groundwater.

The construction of a second seawater desalination plant in Tarfaya, on the other hand, provides an "effective" solution to the demand for drinking water in the city, notes El Hafifi, who adds that this major project, with a budget of 8 million dirhams, has been implemented in a very short time. It will help offset the 36% shortage in drinking water production and meet the drinking water needs in the short term, especially during the summer period.