Rabat- A new early warning satellite system reveals dangerous reservoir shrinkages in India, Iraq, Spain, and Morocco, where water in one of its most important dams reached alarming levels.
Despite the recent rainfalls, which increased the storage dam capacity up to 58.8 percent, the World Resources Institute (WRI) declared that Morocco might still face a water shortage in the coming summer months and beyond.
The alarming report is mostly based on the water shrinkage at Al Massira Reservoir, on the Oum Er-rbia River in Settat Province, which has shrunk by 63 percent between 2015-2017, thus reaching its lowest level since the drought of 2005-2008, which affected more than 700,000 people and decreased grain production by 50 percent.
Al Massira, second largest dam in Morocco after Al Wahda, supplies water to the agricultural sector, which absorbs 33 percent of the labor force, in the Doukkala area, Casablanca-Settat region, and other cities. “While the reservoir’s levels keep decreasing, demand for its water keeps increasing,” stated the report.
The report predicts that water levels at Al Massira would further deteriorate by the large water transfer project to Marrakech, which is expected to be fully operational in 2018.
Climate change is also expected to further diminish water supply, resulting in water stress and competition over scarce resources. According to the World Bank, urban water demand is expected to increase by 60 to 100 percent in most of Morocco’s large cities b 2050.
Earlier last month, Morocco’s Head of Government, Saad Eddine El Othmani, declared that the government is in the process of crafting a national water plan through 2050, in order to solve water shortage problems in several regions.
