Water shortages are worsening in Morocco

---

A difficult decision in the region of Agadir

In the Souss region, in south Morocco, the citrus fruit producers of El Guerdane are worried. At the beginning of October, the government announced that irrigation was to be suspended and that the waters of the dam of Aoulouz would be diverted to the households of Agadir. The drought that struck the region had led the authorities to make a difficult choice, that of giving the population access to drinking water or supporting agricultural crops. Hydric stress is so severe that this measure has been associated with night-time cuts for the inhabitants, between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.The Aoulouz dam, a strategic infrastructure, has reached less than 20% of its total storage capacity. The Abdelmounmen dam, which is also an important source of water for Agadir and its suburbs is almost dry. With only 1.2% of its storage capacity, it has the lowest level of the country’s reservoirs. Thus, it has not been used for irrigation since 2017. The situation is critical for the whole of Morocco: at the end of October, the volumes of water stored in all the reservoirs represented only 37% of the country’s total capacity.

“Historically, we haven’t seen water levels this low at the scale of the basin […]. The data are worrying” lamented Abdelhamid Aslikh, the head of the water reserve agency of Agadir.

The agricultural sector in despair

More than a million people benefit from the water diverted by decision of the public authorities. However, the farmers don’t understand why another, less destructive, solution couldn’t have been found. The harvest season had hardly just begun in this region which supplies nearly half the country’s citrus fruit production. Well water, often salty, cannot suffice to satisfy the needs of the 60 farmers of El Guerdane, especially since the measure comes on top of greater rainfall variability and long drought periods. This measure sounds the death knell for tens of farmers that had invested over several years in the citrus fruit sector.

The impact of the climatic situation is not limited to citrus fruits; this year’s cereal harvest amounted to less than half of that of 2019. Confronted by this situation, the farmers are obliged to cultivate a smaller part of their farms or else change activity.

This deterioration of cultivation conditions is particularly problematic since two fifths of the country’s jobs are provided by the agricultural sector, which also represents 14% of Morocco’s GNP.

The government announced that two other regions would be affected by similar measures:  Marrakech and El Jadida.

Successive public plans

There is nothing new about difficulties with water resources in Morocco. With an average of 650 m³ of water per person per year, the country falls well below the threshold of 1,000 m³ set by the UN to qualify a situation of hydric stress.

The Economic and Social Council of Morocco had already sounded the alarm more than a year ago in a damning report on the country’s hydric situation. It underlined in particular the risk to social peace that conflicts over water resources represented, echoing the demonstrations against repeated water cut-offs in Zagora in 2017, which led to the arrest of 23 people. The report also recalled that 80% of drinking water resources were threatened with disappearance in the next 25 years and denounced the overexploitation of groundwater, which further worsens the problem.

To cope with this situation, the government has set up plans to combat shortages, as well as plans to assist agriculture. In 2008, an ambitious agricultural strategy called the Green Morocco Plan was intended to boost the productivity and income of small farmers. The government asserted that this plan made it possible to economise 2 billion m³ of irrigation water.

Last January, it announced the establishment of a national priority programme for supplies of drinking water and irrigation water. With an investment of more than $12 billion, this plan is scheduled to last 7 years and comprises 5 main objectives that involve the construction of dams and desalination plants. At Agadir, a plant with a pumping capacity of 400,000 m³ a day is expected to come onstream in April 2021 and should calm the situation by partially covering irrigation needs.re than a year ago in a damning report on the country’s hydric situation. It underlined in particular the risk to social peace that conflicts over water resources represented, echoing the demonstrations against repeated water cut-offs in Zagora in 2017, which led to the arrest of 23 people. The report also recalled that 80% of drinking water resources were threatened with disappearance in the next 25 years and denounced the overexploitation of groundwater, which further worsens the problem.

The need to rethink the agricultural model

Nonetheless, the measures taken by the government have been criticised. In September, the Moroccan Institute of Political Analysis (IMAP) published a note reproaching the government’s current and past management policies. This analysis recalled that the problem of shortage mainly stems from agriculture which represents 80% of consumption (versus 20% for households and industry). It showed that the successive emergency plans of the public authorities did not attack the structural problems linked to water supplies.

The authors of this note consider that the country has fostered a model of unequal water resource distribution, favouring large farms oriented towards exports – like citrus fruits – while penalising small farmers.problem of shortage mainly stems from agriculture which represents 80% of consumption (versus 20% for households and industry). It showed that the successive emergency plans of the public authorities did not attack the structural problems linked to water supplies.

Furthermore, the “dam policy” officially launched in 1967, led to the construction of 144 large dams and 255 reservoirs. However, the report deems this policy obsolete, in the face of drought that has become structural, and an altered rain cycle.

It recommends in particular the adoption of more sustainable and more inclusive policies as well as investment in crops better adapted to the region’s semi-arid climate.