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Rabat – The General Director of Morocco’s National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE), Abderrahim El Hafidi, on Tuesday commissioned the construction of the seawater desalination plant at the Guerguarat border post.
The launch of the new desalination plant is part of a series of strategic projects ONEE launched in the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab region in southern Morocco.
El Hafidi made the announcement in the presence of the governor of Aousserd province, Abderrahmane El Jaouhari, and the Director General of the Agency for the Promotion and Socioeconomic Development of the Southern Provinces (APDS), Jabrane Reklaoui.
Under a total budget of MAD 30 million ($2.9 million), the project covers the construction and equipment of a new well, a seawater desalination plant with a capacity of 432 cubic meters a day, and the construction of an elevated reservoir with a capacity of 200 cubic meters, as well as a 5-kilometer distribution network.
The project is jointly financed by the APDS and ONEE. APDS will contribute with MAD 26 million ($2.5 million) and ONEE with MAD 4 million ($ 390,000).
The project, which was under construction in November 2021, will improve the drinking water supply for the local population and provide high-quality water from a local desalination plant, initially distributed by tanker trucks.
In the second phase, the project will also cover developing a drinking water distribution network. Construction work for the network is set to begin in 2024.
To support development in the southern provinces, ONEE has carried out several significant projects in the fields of drinking water and wastewater management to meet the increasing demand for these essential services.
The total investment in the development projects reached a budget of MAD 7.8 billion ($764 million) between 1975 and 2023.
ONEE plans to invest a total of MAD 2.9 billion ($284 million) in drinking water and sanitation in the southern provinces by 2027.
The aim of the projects is to meet the growing demand for drinking water and sanitation services in line with the socio-economic development of the southern provinces.
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