Casablanca: Largest Seawater Desalination Station in Africa
Casablanca starts Procedures for building the biggest Seawater Desalination Station in Africa
Abdelkader Aamara, Minister of Equipment, Transport, Logistics and water, announced today Tuesday, November 10th in Rabat, the launch of the operational steps of setting up the largest seawater desalination station in Africa which will be located in Casablanca.
In his response to a question in the house of councilors about the procedures taken to solve water shortage. Aamara replied that they have started the project’s operational steps. He added that the station capacity reaches 300 million cubic meters, which makes it the largest station in Africa with a budget of 10 billion MAD.
The minister stated that they have finished desalinating seawater in “Chtuka Ayt Baha” province. In addition, they have also upgraded the throughput of numerous seawater desalination stations in the southern regions of Morocco.
The minister also stressed that during the year 2020, in spite of the exceptional conditions of Covid-19, the government insisted on overcoming water shortage during drought. To serve this purpose, the government launched five major dams, finished building six other major dams and planned to set up five more major dams for next year. Meanwhile, fourteen other dams are under construction throughout the regions of Morocco.
On the other hand, the minister noted that the year 2019-2020 witnessed an extreme rainfall shortage. Average rainfall ranges between -5% in “Loucus” basin and – 67% in “Souss-Massa” basin and -50% in “Abu-raqraq-chaouia” basin. The total volume of water inputs reached 4.3 billion cubic meters which consists a deficit of 64%.
The minister clarified that the government holds a clear-cut conception to overcoming water shortage dilemma through a two-level plan. The first is the national program 2020-2027 launched by HM King Mohammed VI last January 2020. An integrated program with a total budget of 115.4 billion MAD. This project holds answers and procedures to different problematics related to water especially in rural areas and small hill dams.
The second plan is the strategic planning of the year 2050 according to law number 36.15 which consists of establishing a 30-year plans. The minister noted that the total budget of this project exceeds 380 billion MAD.