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Rabat – Adding to drought, siltation is causing Moroccan dams to lose up to 70 million cubic meters of water every year, putting further strain on the country’s water resources.
While dams were already running way under their full capacity because of this year’s modest rainfall, siltation is further reducing the dams’ reservoirs, an official from Morocco’s dam resources agency (ABHSM) told the news website Le360 in an interview.
“The siltation of dams is a natural phenomenon that appears as a result of soil erosion in different regions of the country,” the official said. “Unfortunately, this causes us to lose large quantities of water every year.”
All dams across Morocco suffer from siltation, with one of the country’s largest dams, the Bouregreg and Chaouia dam, losing as much as 2.5 million cubes of water to the siltation, the official explained.
To mitigate the effect of siltation on Moroccan dams, he pointed out, the agency has adopted multiple measures including designing dams that could potentially withstand up to 50 years of soil erosion without affecting the dam’s capacity to hold water.
Other techniques the agency has adopted include planting trees and constructing protective dams.
The measures are expected to reduce the siltation of dams in Morocco by up to 20% by 2050, the official noted.
In April of this year, Moroccan dams were running at 34.3% of their full capacity, down from 50.8% the year before.
The notable decline in water resources is the result of the severe drought Morocco witnessed at the start of this year.
