Project to ease Casablanca water crisis begins

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Construction has begun on a $653 million seawater desalination plant to combat water shortages in Casablanca, the largest city in Morocco.

The plant, one of the biggest in Africa, will have an annual production capacity of 300 million cubic metres, serving an estimated 7.5 million people, Morocco World News reported.

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The project will be developed and funded through a public-private partnership to ease water scarcity in the regions around Casablanca that receive insufficient rainfall.

The initiative is part of the 2020-2027 national drinking water supply and irrigation programme launched by King Mohammed VI, which has an allocated budget of MAD143 billion ($14.3 billion).

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The plant will be constructed in two phases on a 50-hectare site. The first phase is expected to be operational by the end of 2026, providing an initial capacity of 548,000 cubic metres of treated water a day.

The second phase will boost capacity to 822,000 cubic metres a day.

The project includes developing a reverse osmosis desalination unit and a comprehensive water transport system with a distribution network of 130km of pipelines.

The Casablanca water transport system will require an extra MAD3 billion, the newspaper said.