Morocco's Water Programmes: A Regional Model

The World Bank has estimated that the available water per person in the MENA region will be halved by 2050. Nonetheless, the financial institution announced in a March 2010 project update that Morocco was "on track to exceed the targets for water and sanitation services contained in the Millennium Development Goals", having increased "its "urban, peri-urban, and rural water supply and sanitation infrastructure programmes spending" from 5% to 25% of total water expenditure between 2005 and 2009. As a result, access to potable water increased from 50% in 2004 to 87% in 2009.

Droughts have plagued the region in the past decade - according to Morocco's Secretariat of State in Charge of Water and Environment, the rainfall deficit has reached nearly 40% some years. "Morocco's water management strategies needed to adapt to meet a number of challenges: growing water deficits, persisting gaps in service access, slow changes in legislation, limited infrastructure programmes, pressing demographic growth and climate change," wrote the World Bank.

In 2000, Morocco introduced a national water strategy and established several public agencies dedicated to water security, including the National Office of Potable Water (Office National de l'Eau Potable, ONEP), which now accounts for over 80% of drinking water production. ONEP has set aside €260m for increasing treatment capacity between 2008 and 2010. "Morocco has invested heavily in dams, water supply capacity and large-scale irrigation systems to secure water for urban and agricultural demands," the World Bank wrote. One ongoing ONEP initiative is to reinforce the drinking water production and supply systems in the towns of Khenifra, Taounate, Settat, Marrakech and Tamesna. Partially financed by the African Development Bank, the €84m project is due for completion in 2010.

Foreign aid has provided a substantial boost to Morocco's water security efforts. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a financing arm of the World Bank, launched a €44.5m rural water supply programme in 2005 and provided a €74.2m Morocco Water Sector Development Policy Loan in 2007.

USAID has initiated a number of water-themed pilot programmes in recent years, including a chromium recycling factory to prevent tanneries from leaking the chemical into the Sebou River. In March 2010, the Japan International Cooperation Agency signed off on a €193.6m loan to Morocco, of which €126.8m will go to wastewater treatment and provision of drinking water.

Agriculture is Morocco's top water consumer, using around 80% of resources. Given that the sector is a major employer and a significant contributor to GDP, the 2008 national agriculture strategy, called the Green Morocco Plan (Plan Maroc Vert, PMV), implemented a number of practices to increase the stability and efficiency of water resources, including replacing existing irrigation systems with micro-irrigation. Under the PMV, drip irrigation will be expanded from 150,000 ha to 670,000 ha by 2020, and 1m ha of land dedicated to water-intensive cereal crops will be converted to less-intensive fruit and vegetable production.

Tourism development also threatened to take a bite out of scant water supply. MEDSTAT, a cooperation programme between the EU and 10 Mediterranean partner countries, has predicted that tourism traffic in the Mediterranean will reach 396m per year by 2025, resulting in the mass construction of water-intensive hotels, golf courses and swimming pools.

Nonetheless, the success of Morocco's water programmes to date places it ahead of the pack in terms of resource security, and should serve as a regional model as nations begin to feel the heat.

OBG