Marruecos construirá cinco grandes presas en 2021
Morocco will begin the construction of five large dams with a total storage capacity of 525 million cubic metres that will allow the Kingdom to improve its drinking and irrigation water supplies, according to statements by the Minister of Equipment, Transport, Logistics and Water, Abdelkader Amara.
Amara himself confirmed last Tuesday in parliament that the budget for the construction of the dams will reach 4.8 billion dirhams, some 445 million euros. The dams will have a total capacity of 525 million cubic metres. Three will be built in the provinces of Azilal, Agadir and Figuig, while the other two will be built in the province of Beni-Mellal.
Upon completion, the five new dams will increase the country's storage capacity from 19 billion to 27 billion cubic metres. Over the last decade, Morocco built 23 large dams with a storage capacity of 6.2 billion, costing some 2.555 billion euros.
This project is part of the national programme for drinking and irrigation water supply 2020-2027. Of the 23 plans for large dams launched between 2009 and 2020, Minister Amara reported that seven are operational, while the other 16 - five started last year - are still under construction.
On Morocco's progress in resource management, Amara noted that the country has established "remarkable infrastructures for water management". To date, Morocco has built a total of 149 large dams with a capacity of more than 19 billion cubic metres, in addition to 133 smaller dams.
The North African country faces a serious threat of water stress in the future. The World Resources Institute (WRI) ranked Morocco 22nd overall and 12th among Arab countries to suffer from this problem, so since his accession to the throne, Mohammed VI has consolidated the policy led by the late King Hassan II of equipping the Kingdom with water infrastructure to meet the growing needs of citizens.
To address the challenge of water scarcity, Morocco has launched a plan to ensure sufficient supply by diversifying sources of drinking and irrigation water, improving water management and increasing reserves in rural areas through the construction of more large and small dams, desalination plants and the exploration of groundwater resources, among others.
