Water Scarcity Management Requires New Strategy, Structural Measures – Minister

Rabat – The water scarcity issue cannot be solved in a few months. It requires a new strategy, a vision, and structuring measures, Minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka, said on Monday.

Asked about the water scarcity issue during the weekly session of oral questions in the House of Representatives, the Minister explained that the shortage of drinking water is due to the significant decline in water resources, which have decreased by 85% as a result of low rainfall, a decline in snowfall (the area covered by snow has dropped from 45,000 km2 to 5,000 km2), and a drop in the number of snowy days which totaled 14 days this year compared to an annual average of 41 days.

The official also attributed water scarcity to the significant decline in groundwater, noting that these declines began in 2018 and have impacted water resources.

A contingency program was established last December for the most affected drainage basins, the minister said, adding that the measures taken include the construction of exploratory wells to channel water to many localities, including Guercif, Taourirt, and Oujda, the improvement of water management and development of alternative solutions to water shortages, such as the construction of seawater desalination plants.

As for the city of Laayoune, the official revealed that the new water desalination plant would be operational in the coming days.

On the other hand, the minister stressed that efforts are underway to launch the work for the transfer of water from the Al Wahda dam “to make interconnections between water basins a tangible reality and avoid the loss of large quantities of water that end up in the sea.”