Exceptional heavy rains revive lakes in southeastern Morocco

Recent heavy rains in Morocco have filled lakes that had been empty for years due to drought and high temperatures in the country's southeastern deserts.  

This exceptional phenomenon has brought relief to the residents of these tourist oases and has changed the general landscape of the region, with lakes now interspersed among the sand dunes, as well as on the outskirts of Merzouga, a town 600 kilometres southeast of Rabat. 

‘These rains came at a delicate time, when water was scarce, and made it possible to restore our natural heritage and meet the water needs of the population,’ Karim Saouk, a local resident, told Al-Arab. The rains also benefit local tourism. In this regard, tour guide Youssef Ait Shiga recalls that many of the lakes in the area have been dry since 2016.   

The Merzouga deserts enjoy great popularity among lovers of this type of tourism and are considered an indispensable stop on tourist itineraries in southeastern Morocco. Recent rains, according to tour guide Khaled Sikandouli, have made them ‘more attractive’ and ‘attracted more tourists’. 

Morocco has suffered a severe drought in recent years, peaking in 2023, a year considered ‘the driest ever recorded in at least 80 years’, with a deficit of about 48% compared to the average rainfall of a normal year, according to a recent report by the General Directorate of Meteorology.   

However, during the past month of September, the southern and south-eastern regions have witnessed heavy rains that even caused flooding, when at least 28 people died.  

These desert and semi-arid regions were affected by a rare weather phenomenon characterised by ‘an exceptional rise of the tropical front in the south of the country which mixed with other cold masses coming from the north’, according to the General Directorate of Meteorology. 

The agency expects such extreme weather events to become ‘increasingly frequent’ and attributes them to the effects of climate change, ‘which is pushing tropical air masses northwards’.  

‘All the data indicates that what has happened is a sign of climate change, but it is difficult to solve the problem at this stage because studies need to be carried out and enough time needs to be spent on research,’ climate researcher Fatima Driush tells Al-Arab. 

Although the recent rains have changed the general appearance of the deserts that stretch across several parts of the southeast of the Kingdom, ‘an abrupt change cannot have a permanent impact on the region,’ warns Fatima Dariush. 

At the local level, low rainfall has allowed some dams to increase their reservoirs and groundwater to be reactivated, even if only partially, while a return to normality requires regular rainfall in the long term, experts say.  

Rainfall is one of the main challenges facing Morocco, whose economy remains heavily dependent on agriculture, a sector that employs around a third of the working population. Desalination of seawater is also essential for the Kingdom to supply the cities most affected by the drought.  

In addition to Morocco, other North African countries are among the most affected by water stress, according to the World Resources Institute.