Morocco is located in the most dangerous region that is constantly experiencing water stress in the world: North Africa and the Middle East, so it seems strange how it can be an agricultural country that suffices with food and then exports abroad, so what is the secret of that?
The water stress criterion is the ratio of the amount of water available per year to the population. In Morocco, for example, this percentage was average in the sixties, estimated at 2,500 cubic meters of water per citizen, and today it is weak and disturbing, not exceeding 650 cubic meters per citizen. This decline in water wealth has two reasons. The first is related to demographic expansion. We were 8 million and today we are 36 million. Swimming pools and private green spaces were limited, and moreover, not all homes were connected to the water distribution network. The second reason is related to the nature of water use between the past and the present, because the irrigation intensity has changed and expanded significantly, in addition to the development of the industrial sector that consumes water, making it the second consumer after the agricultural sector.
Morocco has many dams that provide it with 18 billion cubic meters in ideal conditions of water and snowfall, which is a theoretical number, because our country has never collected more than 11 billion cubic meters in its dams. You have heard about the Masirah Dam, which dried up for many years, and does not exceed twenty-five percent of its capacity at best.
These dams represent a guarantee and security against successive years of drought. Without them, we would have lost food security forever. This is one of the good deeds of Hassan II, may God have mercy on him, but it is not enough, because the national water beds are also overexploited, including the production of watermelon (watermelon) in semi-desert areas. Even if all the programmed dams are completed, the 27 billion cubic meters expected in the future will not be enough for us in light of the backward use of water.
So, how can a country ranked 22nd among the drought-threatened countries in the world export foodstuffs and have these exports represent billions of phosphates, industry and tourism? The secret is the existence of an export lobby. One of the most dangerous things God created is selfishness and a lack of patriotic spirit. He expressed this spirit this year when he preferred exporting to saving Moroccans from the hell of prices.
We cannot continue to weep and pray for woe and remorse for those who brought us to this disaster, government and people, but rather we must anticipate the most dangerous water situation imaginable. As if the thirst of Casablanca, which has many millions, we do not find water to save it with in any other region or region (we mention here the thirst crisis that struck Tangier years ago, and ships carried water from El Jadida to overcome the crisis). We have to expect more successive years of drought, such as witnessing three consecutive years of the 1981 drought “category”, and then develop scenarios to face such disastrous conditions.
We have three main solutions that we must expedite work on expanding and intensifying: The first is to build water desalination plants in most of the major and medium coastal cities, and make them operate with clean energy as possible, solar, wind, wave power… The second is to treat wastewater for cities, to reduce pressure on water distribution Drinking freshness. This does not apply to cities, but to all businesses that generate a lot of wastewater. The third solution is to rationalize the use of water by monitoring the way it is used by official authorities, companies or individuals, and emphasizing the protection of the water bed in particular.
Moroccans do not know the value of water in all cases of its use, from the kitchen to washing the car to watering the garden to filling the swimming pool, to caring for the golf course, to neglecting the drip and continuing to irrigate the land with “the bundle”; Therefore, they (meaning Moroccans) must be pushed to warn against its waste, not through media campaigns, but by raising the price of water. How is that?
We know that the water distribution companies divide the rations into six cubic meters in each part. The first part is cheap and does not exceed a square meter, especially for collective distribution agencies. This is the rate of consumption of poor families usually, and the second part is a square meter with a little more than 5 dirhams. Within the limits of these two parts, we bid farewell to the poor and medium families, for whom we must maintain these prices.
But when we reach the third segment and above, we come into contact with the big water wasters, including individuals, contractors, and so on, and here lies the deterrence required for these, by raising the price of the third and fourth segments and what comes after them. At that time, we will see a few people who fill their swimming pool weekly, or water their garden every day, or make massacres with cheap water to raise the revenues of their company. Nowadays, we find all Moroccans afraid of wasting gasoline or diesel oil because of their high price, so why not fear wasting water, which is more valuable than fuel, simply because it is life. This is about the consumption of potable water. As for agricultural use, it is a big file, and “a camel must be moved.”
