Recent rainfall has helped fill Morocco’s dams and help slightly reduce fears of another drought-stricken agricultural season.
Morocco’s Ministry of Equipment, Transport, Logistics, and Water announced that Moroccan dams have exceeded more than 5.3 billion cubic meters (m3), a filling rate of about 33%.
This month’s dams’ filling rate constitutes a decrease compared to a filling rate of 50%, over 8 billion cubic meters in March of 2021, mainly due to a lack of rainfall this year.
With a capacity of more than 1.95 billion m3 and a filling rate of 55.6%, the Alwahda Dam has the largest reservoir, which is currently filled significantly less than last year’s 78.7% filling rate.
With a reservoir of 479.6 million m3, the Idriss I Dam is in second place, with a filling rate of 42.5%, compared to 75.2% at the same time last year (849.4 million m3).
The dam Oued El Makhazine ranked third with a filling rate of 65.2% and a retention of 438.9 million m3.
The increase in water stored at dams comes after months of drought, with only minimal rainfall.
The rain comes to help alleviate the concerns of Moroccan farmers and officials about a shortage of rainfall in the agricultural season 2021-2022.
King Mohammed VI has earlier launched a program to alleviate the economic crisis brought on by the drought and help the agricultural sector cope with the lack of rain.
The Ministry of Equipment, Transport, Logistics, and Water announced last month that it is allocating MAD 2.42 billion ($260 million) aside for the 2021-2022 emergency plan to ensure the country’s drinking water supply.
The ministry’s plan also aims to alleviate the basins’ water shortages by building more dams, hunting for new groundwater sources, and putting in place a desalination water facility in Nador.
