Despite the lack and scarcity of rainfall, during this year in Morocco, the filling rates of the Kingdom’s dams “resisted” climatic fluctuations, despite an unprecedented rise in temperatures (5 to 8 degrees above mean seasonal temperatures). Which, in these particular circumstances, increases the need for water consumption in different activities.
The total volume of dams in the Kingdom, according to figures from the General Directorate of Water Engineering of the Ministry of Equipment and Water, is 5212 million cubic meters, with a filling rate of 32, 3%, compared to 4985.6 million cubic meters and a filling rate of 30.9% recorded during the same period last year.
The interruption of drinking water or the reduction of flows therefore continue to threaten this summer in certain areas of drought, or those which received very little precipitation throughout the exercise, or marked by a “fluctuating rhythm”. in terms of rainfall volume or regularity.
The indicators of the official daily bulletin on the daily situation of the main dams of the Kingdom, on this Tuesday, June 27, showed a great disparity and a clear discrepancy between the different dams of the Kingdom, in particular those which have an enormous storage capacity.
Thus the filling rate of the “Bin El Ouidane” dam in the Beni Mellal-Khenifra region is 14.4% (13.7% last year), while al Wahda reached 54, 2% (51.5%). The Idriss first dam (Fez-Meknes region) posted 27.1% against 40.8% last year. This is a very critical situation that we find, moreover, in the “Ahmed Al-Hansali” dam, which is limited to a filling rate of 7.6% (9.4% June 27, 2022).
The “Al-Hassan Al-Dakhil” dam is at 26.2%, and the Mokhtar Soussi dam, does not exceed 15.2%. While the filling rate of the Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah dam, which supplies the capital Rabat and some surrounding towns, is only 21.5% to date. The filling rate of the Al Massira dam in the Tensift basin remains alarming at its 5.6% identical to last year at the same period.
Benseghir Abdelfathallah, an expert on water issues within the “water sub-group” formed by graduates of the Hassan II Institute of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences in Rabat, commented on the figures, describing ” the current water situation as very critical“. He confirmed to MoroccoLatestNews that “ what we experienced during the last summer months (2022) is renewed this year. However, what is mainly observed is a difference and contrast between cities and watersheds“.
Benseghir Abdelfathallah cited the example of the Tensift basin, which supplies most of the regions of Al Haouz, the city of Marrakech and its surroundings. He stated, that ” its situation remains generally better during this time of year than last year“, reassuring that ” the city of Marrakech will not suffer from major problems in general such as the drinking water supply of its inhabitants “.
In this context, he mentioned that “ the rainfall, despite its scarcity during the rainy season, nevertheless made it possible to take the decision to reirrigate the major irrigation circuits and “urgent” water connections in Morocco, which extend over an area of approximately 700,000 hectares“. He then pointed out that, the urgency lay in hydraulic connection projects between the basins known to be in surplus and located for the most part in the north of the Kingdom, and their counterparts which were affected by severe drought in the center and south of the country“.
The Moroccan water expert said in this regard: “ Today, there is no escape from the acceleration of water connection projects and the completion of the water highway in light of the current shortage crisis“, noting that”these were expected projects“. Managing the high demand for water in addition to control data related to the volume of precipitation and water imports, and to follow dams within an electronic portal for the public and researchers“, he further underlined.
The consequences of ” the continued overharvesting of all kinds of marine litter, without accountability or oversight, can be serious.”.
Also, he recommended “to improve the water supply based on in-depth studies and ensuring the feasibility of the thing, according to the specificities of each region, city, village…” .
For Benseghir Abdelfathallah, the importance is “to diversify the options between the construction of new dams, seawater desalination plants or wastewater reuse“. He also called for improvement and maintenance of irrigation and drinking water networks“, emphasizing that “ the demand for water continues to increase with population growth and economic needs which must correspond to the volume of supply“. In order to achieve a ” good water governancehe continued, the activation of the role of the water police must be essential and the looters of water resources will have to be severely punished“.
The evocation of the policy for the construction of large dams in Morocco did not escape the speech of the water expert who declared accordingly: If it weren’t for the dams, we wouldn’t have guaranteed drinking water to all citizens in certain areas, after two consecutive years of drought.“.