Morocco’s drinking water production capacity from desalination reaches 320 billion m³ in 2025

RABAT - Morocco’s Minister of Equipment and Water Nizar Baraka told parliament on Tuesday that seawater desalination has reached a drinking water production capacity of 320 billion cubic meters by 2025.

In response to oral questions from lawmkers, Baraka reported a "qualitative leap" in investments in the equipment and water sectoras the budget had been increased from 43 billion dirhams in 2023 to 70 billion dirhams in 2025. 

The water desalination is part of the measures taken by drough-hit Morocco to address water stress and the decline in rainfall in recent years. 

The minister said that the new construction sites will create 27 million workdays by the end of 2025, adding that ministry was continuing the construction of new dams in accordance with the King Mohammed VI’s instructions. 

Some 16 dams are under construction to date with a capacity of 20 billion cubic metres. 

Baraka said that work on the water highway was progressing to link Oued Laou to Oum El Rabia thanks to an agreement recently signed between Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. 

This project will, in a first phase, transfer 800 million m³ annually from the Sebou basin to Oum El Rabia. The expected objective in the second phase is to transport 1,200 billion m³ from Oued Laou.

The minister stressed that drinking water production capacities from seawater desalination have increased from 40 billion m³ to 320 billion m³, with the objective of reaching 1,700 billion m³ in 2030.

Several desalination plants will be launched soon to be able to provide 50% of the population's drinking water needs by 2030.

Desalination plants in Casablanca-Settat region

The Casablanca-Settat region is in the process of acquiring around thirty desalination plants.

These include 28 monobloc seawater desalination and demineralization stations (SMB), intended to ensure the population's supply of drinking water.

"To date, 17 SMBs are already operational out of the 28 planned across the region," said the president of the Casablanca-Settat Regional Council, Abdellatif Maazouz, in a statement to MAP.

Maâzouz, who was speaking during a visit to several of these stations in Berrechid and Settat on Monday, stressed that "these projects have mobilized an investment of 400 million dirhams (MDh), divided between a contribution from the State of 272 MDh and from the Region (128 MDh)."

Maazouz welcomed the impact of these stations on the supply of drinking water to the population, calling for rigorous and daily monitoring of the situation of this vital resource and for collective awareness of the challenges to be met in this area.

"Citizens, in this case, must do their part by avoiding any waste of water," he said.

The president of the Casablanca-Settat Regional Council said that this initiative was part of an integrated approach, which consolidates other structuring projects such as the water highway linking the Sebou basin to that of Bouregreg, or the Jorf Lasfar desalination plant, pending the completion of the large desalination plant in Casablanca, which  will have a treatment capacity of 200 million m³ per year and should, upon its launch, cover approximately 80% of the region's drinking water needs.

This innovative project is part of the mission of the Casablanca-Settat Regional Multiservice Company (SRM) to ensure the security of the drinking water supply in the Region.

The flow rate of SMBs can vary from a production of 3 liters of drinking water per second to more than 30 l/s for some. Monobloc stations rely on reverse osmosis technology, which provides high-quality treated water while also being an environmentally friendly solution.