Morocco Plans 20 New Desalination Plants to Combat Water Scarcity by 2030

Morocco is taking urgent and innovative measures to avoid future water shortages, like the one last year, the worst the kingdom has experienced in the last three decades. These twenty seawater desalination plants will be added to the nine existing plants, said Nizar Baraka.

Morocco wants to fight against climate change, the effects of which were felt during the last drought. The proximity to the Sahara, combined with population growth, explain the water shortage recorded at the beginning of the year, explains the minister, specifying that the water quota per Moroccan is only 645 cubic meters while it was 3,500 cubic meters in the 1960s.

To read: Morocco Expands Water Security with 20 New Seawater Desalination Plants

Morocco will also invest in wastewater treatment that can be used for agriculture, added Baraka, who plans to treat one billion cubic meters of wastewater, which will significantly increase the 70 million cubic meters currently available.

Morocco has already started the construction of a desalination plant on a site near Agadir. It will be the largest in the world and will be used for consumption and irrigation. The Moroccan government has already mobilized more than 4.41 billion dirhams for its construction. The work has been entrusted to the Spanish company Abengoa, which will then manage it for 27 years.