BEDDOUZA: In the small fishing village of Beddouza in western Morocco, locals have turned to the Atlantic to quench their thirst, using mobile desalination stations to combat the kingdom’s ongoing drought. As of 2023, Morocco has built about 44 of these desalination plants, also called “monoblocs” — compact, portable units that have come as a boon against the increasingly tangible effects of climate change. Drinking water is delivered by tankers to remote areas of the country, which is currently facing its worst drought in almost 40 years. “We heard about desalinated water in other villages, but we never expected to have it here,” said 27-year-old fisherman Karim, who did not give his last name, as he gathered among dozens with jerry cans to collect his share. water. Hassan Kheir, 74, another villager, described the mobile stations as a godsend as groundwater in the region had “dried up”. About 45,000 people now have access to drinking water directly from the ocean in Beddouz, about 180 kilometers (112 mi) northwest of Marrakesh, as a result of three monoblock desalination plants. These units can potentially cover a radius of up to 180 kilometers, according to Yassine Maliari, the official in charge of local water distribution. With dams nearly depleted and water levels dry, some three million people in rural Morocco are in urgent need of drinking water, according to official figures, and the kingdom has pledged to build 219 more desalination plants. Monoblock stations can produce up to 3,600 cubic meters of drinking water per day and are “the best possible solution” given the ease of distribution, Maliari said. For cities with greater needs, such as Casablanca, larger desalination plants are also under construction, adding to the 12 existing national power plants with a total capacity of nearly 180 million cubic meters of potable water per year. By 2040, Morocco is poised to face “extremely high” water stress, the non-profit research organization World Resources Institute has predicted. The North African country with the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean has bet on desalination for the sake of water safety. In Beddouz, the population is relatively better off than those in remote areas further inland. About 200 kilometers to the east in Al-Massira, the country’s second largest dam has almost dried up. The dam has filled to a worryingly meager 0.4 percent, compared to 75 percent in 2017, Abdelghani Ait Bahssou, manager of a desalination plant in the coastal city of Safi, told AFP. The total capacity of the country’s dams currently averages 28 percent, but is feared to drop by 2050, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, as drought is expected to persist. Over the same period, official data predicts an 11 percent decrease in precipitation and an increase in temperatures of 1.3 degrees Celsius. As the country grapples with the increasingly volatile effects of climate change, King Mohammed VI. he promised that desalination would provide more than 1.7 billion cubic meters per year and cover more than half of the country’s drinking water needs by 2030. Water shortages also threaten Morocco’s vital agricultural sector, which employs around a third of the working-age population and accounts for 14 percent of exports. Cultivated areas across the kingdom are expected to shrink to 2.5 million hectares in 2024 from 3.7 million last year, according to official figures. By 2023, 25 percent of desalinated water has been allocated to agriculture, which consumes more than 80 percent of the country’s water resources. In that context, authorities in Safi were “racing against time” to build a regular desalination plant that now serves all of its 400,000 residents, Bahssou said. The plant is to be expanded by 2026 to also supply water to Marrakesh and its 1.4 million inhabitants, about 150 kilometers east of Safi, Bahssou added.
