The Minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka, stated that the High Directives given by His Majesty King Mohammed VI during the working session devoted to monitoring the National Drinking Water Supply and Irrigation Program, which was chaired Tuesday in Rabat by the Sovereign, aim to ensure drinking water supply and water and food security in urban and rural areas.
In a statement to the press following this working session, Baraka noted that His Majesty the King emphasized during this meeting the need for the government to accelerate the completion of large, medium, and small dams and implement the seawater desalination program.
Baraka added that these efforts would play a significant role in supplying citizens with drinking water and securing irrigation water for the agricultural sector.
The Minister also specified that His Majesty the King urged the acceleration of the interconnection of dams, particularly the dams of the hydraulic basins of Sebou, Bouregreg, and Oum Er-Rbia, noting that the works of interconnecting the basins of Sebou and Bouregreg are underway and will extend to Oum Er-Rbia basin to reach Al Massira Dam.
The government official explained that this project aims “to avoid the possibility of 500 to 800 million cubic meters (m3) of water going to sea, and to fulfill the needs of drinking and irrigation water supply at the level of all these basins.”
Baraka stated that the treatment of wastewater should reach 100 million per cubic meter (m3) instead of 30 million, adding that such measures will contribute to water saving and the preservation of the groundwater.
During this meeting, emphasis was also placed on water efficiency, ways to reduce losses in pipes in irrigation and drinking water, and the acceleration of the drip irrigation program to reach 1 million hectares (Ha) by 2030.