Drought in northern Morocco pushes construction of Tangier desalination plant to accelerate

The authorities in Morocco's Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region have decided to take a series of immediate and concise measures to deal with the severe shortage of rainfall that the Kingdom has been facing for some time. 

This severe drought has seriously affected the region's dams, which have dropped by 61.28%, according to official figures reported by Rue20. 

Faced with this dangerous development, the agency in charge of water resources in northern Morocco announced that it will take a series of measures to mobilise and rationalise the use of available water resources to deal with the water shortage. 

In this regard, the agency highlighted the acceleration of the study on the construction of a seawater desalination plant in the city of Tangier. It has also approved a series of measures such as reducing the water quota of the Dar Lakhroufa irrigation district in the province of Larache, and suspending the granting of licences to bring water from watercourses. 

Tangier announced the creation of a seawater desalination plant by the end of 2022. A first investment of 22 million dirhams was made to begin construction, as agreed with various companies at the ordinary session of the Regional Council of Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (CR-TTA). 

These urgent decisions come in parallel with the strengthening of the work of the hydraulic police patrols, the acceleration of the pace of completion of the Guis dam in the province of Al Hoceima, the completion of exploratory wells to supply drinking water and the placement of floating pumps at the level of the dams.  

The agency also indicated that these measures were taken following the significant drop in rainfall, which affected the rate of filling of the dams and the volume of groundwater, as a result of the climatic changes Morocco has experienced in recent years. 

The total reservoir of the dams reached only 666.75 million cubic metres this season, while the capacity of the large dams in the north reached 1,921.76 million cubic metres, as the region experienced high levels of rainfall compared to the rest of Morocco.