10/3/2024–|Last updated: 10/3/202406:13 PM (Mecca time)
In the Moroccan village of Sidi Bouchta, residents who live by fishing never expected that they would quench their thirst from the water of the Atlantic Ocean after it was desalinated with mobile stations, in a technology that has become essential to confront chronic drought.
Near this village, located in the Safi governorate in the center-west of the country, a small mobile facility consisting of two tanks and two containers was erected on the sand of Ras Badouza beach, working to desalinate water to distribute it to about 45,000 residents of neighboring villages.
While many coastal cities have relied since 2022 on traditional desalination plants to fully or partially meet their drinking water needs, the authorities have resorted to these small mobile stations, which “made it possible to avoid the worst,” according to the director of the local agency for water and electricity distribution, Yassin Al-Malili.
After 6 consecutive years of drought, the Massira Dam, located about 220 kilometers north of Safi, is no longer able to meet the region’s drinking water needs, like all the country’s dams whose reserve does not exceed an average of 28%.
Water stress
In the face of severe water stress, the authorities prepared 44 mobile desalination plants starting in April 2023, while 219 others are in the process of preparation, to meet the needs of about 3 million rural residents, according to official data.
Al-Malili says that these small stations can produce 360 to 3,600 cubic meters of water per day, making them “the best solution for their ease of installation and possibility of transportation,” noting also their low cost, which is approximately $1.3 million on average per unit.
Without the attention of vacationers, seawater is pumped from the beach of Ras Badouza, undergoes treatment before the necessary minerals are added to it, and then is transported in tanks to be distributed to residents of villages in need “daily, free of charge, within a range of up to 180 kilometers,” as Al-Mallili confirms.
Retired fisherman Khair Hassan (74 years old) says that until recently, the residents of the village of Sidi Bouchta relied on groundwater, “but it has recently dried up… We have not witnessed such a situation since the 1980s.”
Karim (27 years old), who is also a fisherman, adds, “We heard that other cities depend on sea water, but we did not imagine that we would resort to them as well.”
He came, accompanied by a number of residents of the small village, to the courtyard of the mosque, where he placed a plastic tank into which desalinated water was emptied, so he could relieve himself.
Here the situation seems less bad compared to other remote villages, where local media reported villagers suffering from water scarcity during the summer.
Expectations portend that drought will continue in 2050, as rainfall is expected to decrease (-11%) and temperatures will rise (+1.3 degrees), according to a study by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Other desalination plants
Morocco is also counting on seawater to save agriculture, for which in 2023 approximately 25% of desalinated water is allocated in 12 stations, according to the Ministry of Equipment and Water.
This sector consumes more than 80% of the country’s water resources and employs a third of the active workforce.
However, priority is given to providing drinking water after entire cities faced the threat of thirst, such as Safi, which was cut off from the Al-Masirah Dam, the second largest dam in the country.
The dam’s reserve has declined “from 75% in 2017 to 0.4% currently,” according to Abdel-Ghani Ait Bahasso, an official at the desalination plant affiliated with the Cherifian Office of Phosphate (official).
In the face of the imminent danger, the authorities turned to the global phosphate leader, which operates factories in the region, to build a desalination plant.
Bahasso adds, “In a short time…we have been in a race against time since 2022, and the city began gradually being supplied with drinking water since August 2023, and completely starting in February 2024.”
The station is expected to be expanded to supply the tourism capital, Marrakesh (150 kilometers east) and its environs, by the year 2026.
Expand to other cities
According to official data, the construction of 6 new water desalination plants has begun, the most prominent of which is in the economic capital, Casablanca, and the construction of 8 more is expected to begin, including a plant in Rabat.
Since last September, the capital has avoided the danger of thirst thanks to the “Water Road,” a canal built along a 67-kilometre stretch that transports water from the rainy Sebou region to the north.
Although some residents of Sidi Bouchta find desalinated sea water less sweet than spring water, the severity of climate fluctuations makes it a strategic choice in Morocco, which has two vast seafronts.
King Mohammed VI announced in a recent speech that Morocco is counting on it to provide “more than 1.7 billion cubic meters annually,” “cover more than half of its need for drinking water,” and “irrigate large agricultural areas” by 2030.
