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Rabat – Morocco’s Minister of Equipment, Transport, Logistics, and Water Nizar Baraka said on March 1 that the country’s dams reached a capacity of 5.3 billion cubic meters by the end of February.
Morocco’s dams were set at a filling rate of about 32.7% in February 2022 against 49.1% during the same month a year ago.
Speaking before the House of Representatives on “water stress and emergency measures for water supply,” Baraka assured the current capacity of dams would allow supplying water under normal conditions to all major cities.
The minister highlighted that water supply will be made under the exception of supplying urban agglomerations under the hydraulic basins of Moulouya, Oum Er-Rbia, Tansift and Guir-Ziz-Rheris.
Dams in Moulouya and Tensift have recorded a drop in their filling rates, recording only an 11% and 34% filling rate respectively.
Baraka further noted that the aforementioned areas suffer from water deficit due to the current low reservoirs of the dams based on said basins.
Last month, the ministry announced that it had allocated MAD 2.42 billion ($260 million) for the 2021-2022 emergency plan to secure drinking water supply across the country.
The emergency plan also focuses on addressing the water deficit challenges in the basins, with the goals of building more dams, searching for new groundwater sources, and implementing a desalination water station in Nador.
In 2021, Morocco’s National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) invested over MAD 4.4 billion ($460 million) in drinking water and water purification projects.
Access to drinking water in rural areas increased from 97.8% at the end of 2020 to 98.2% at the end of 2021, according to ONEE.
Read Also: Morocco Allocates $260 Million to Secure Water Supply
