Morocco’s Dam Storage Capacity Reaches 44.8% (Ministry)

Rabat – Dam’s storage capacity in Morocco has now reached 7.19 billion cubic meters (44.8%), the Ministry of Equipment, Transport, Logistics and Water said Tuesday.

On January 1-13, Morocco experienced important rainfall which had a favorable impact on the hydrologic situation of the national territory, according to a statement from the ministry.

The rainfall generated significant water inflows at the Kingdom’s largest dams, estimated on January 19, 2021 at about 1,406 million cubic meters.

The Al Wahda dam (Province of Ouezzane) has recorded a fill rate of 66.4% (2.340 billion cubic meters), while the Oued El Makhazine dam fill rate increased to 97.1% (653.3 million m3).

The dam of Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah showed a fill rate of 64.2% (626 million cubic meters), while the volume of water stored by the Idriss I dam totaled 727.9 m3 (64.4%), the statement said.

The Ahmed El Hansali dam (Province of Beni Mellal) totaled 155.4 million cubic meters (23.2%), while the Youssef Ben Tachfine dam reported a fill rate of 23.3% (32.6 million cubic meters).

Concerning the main hydraulic basins, more than 100 mm of rainfall was recorded in the Loukkos, Souss Massa and Sebou basins, between 50 and 100 mm were recorded in the Bouregreg and Oum Errbia basins, and less than 50 mm were registered in the Tensift, Moulouya, Draa and Ziz Guir Rheriss basins.

Moreover, important snowfalls have affected the country’s elevated areas, reaching more than 90 cm in some areas.

Following this rainfall, the level of water reserves of dams and groundwater will continue to improve in the coming days, the ministry concluded.