Will Water Be the Next Oil in Morocco?

Morocco, as many other countries in the world, suffered and is still suffering from climate change, especially in the depletion of water resources.

The country had gone from 2500 cubic meters of water per person in 1960, to 650 cubic meters of water per person in 2020 and 500 cubic meters in 2030. The result is still in decline.

According to some studies, climate change will affect and destroy water resources all over Morocco in different regions. This damage can result in the loss of between 75% and 80% of available water resources for the next 25 years.

Despite the scarcity of water resources, overconsumption and waste remain, especially in groundwater, without any guidance or strict restriction of the law for the exploitation of water resources. Rapid depletion of groundwater resources means the water table has dropped quickly.

The demand for water in Morocco today is greater than the annual available quantities of renewable resources of fresh water. Therefore, achieving water security is a top priority for Morocco now and in the coming years. In view of the risks, it entails effecting social peace and contributing to the exacerbation of spatial disparities, water security requires an urgent political response.

Morocco had launched too many initiatives and projects not only to help the country in this status quo, but also to let Morocco achieve water security, especially in these hard times, that the world suffering from many crises, such as the Russian-Ukrainian War, Bipolar Conflict, Climate changes, Desertification, Fighting terrorism in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Morocco found himself in the middle of hard difficult situation, a multi-front war that depleting his resources and These problems threaten Morocco’s solvency.

The Moroccan government is implementing a number of measures to minimize water use since it is aware that there is a need to solve the issue of water scarcity.

These include initiatives to increase awareness of the value of water conservation as well as legislation to encourage the adoption of water-efficient technology in business and agriculture.

Groundwater is the main source of water in Morocco, providing approximately 75% of the country’s water supply. This makes it an essential resource for drinking water, agriculture, and industry.

Moreover, Morocco had implemented several policies. Such as the policy of building dams all over the regions of Morocco, that launched in the 90s, this policy not only helped Morocco to avoided many problems that connected with water drought but also guaranteed water security for Morocco in the 90s, however in the other hand this kind of policy not working besides  it’s can’t help Morocco, especially that Morocco owned 145 big dams, and 250 small dams, that build with an old technology that used in the 90s, Furthermore these dams is suffering also from many problems, not only the technology that we used to build dams in 90s we still using it until now in 2023 also the problem of depletion, because of soil erosion, there’s 5 big dams that lost more than 40% of it rate fill such as; The dam of Sidi Idris, dam of Mohamed V and Nakhleh dam, without mentioning that dams in the north of Morocco have a high fill rate, whereas dams in the mid-west of Morocco have a low fill rate.

Although, with the dam’s policy Morocco is still facing the water crisis and Drought, Desertification, Depletion, Pollution, Silt dams. In the same way, with Morocco facing its worst drought in three decades, the government has doubled the budget allocated to water management by 459 $ in the 2023 Finance Bill, and has taken steps to address the challenges of drought & water stress.

Drought in Morocco has nearly drained ground water sources, and farmers have given up hope of producing crops. Droughts in Morocco now happen every two years, rather than once every ten years as they did before the 1990s.

The new drought will impact state finances and raise longer-term issues about Morocco’s water-intensive agricultural economy in a country where agriculture is the largest position and contributes to 17% of production in 2021.

if we don’t take the risk and assist ourselves right now, the entire generation will suffer. Water is the most vital resource, and without it, we would perish, Rose’s are red violets are blue let’s ban privet jets and make polluters pay too

Mohamed khouyi.