Morocco’s seawater desalination capacity should soon increase. On January 27, 2022, the Moroccan Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fishing, Rural Development and Water and Forests, Mohammed Sadiki announced the commissioning of the Chtouka-Ait Baha station for this month of February 2022. The project, whose work is 98.5% complete, will improve the coverage of drinking water in the Greater Agadir.
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The desalination plant has been built since 2018 by Aman El Baraka, under a public-private partnership (PPP). The subsidiary of the Spanish group Abengoa will also operate and maintain the plant for a period of 20 years after its inauguration. Two intakes in the ocean will bring the sea water to the catchment basin from which it will be pumped, after pre-treatment, to the desalination plant.
visit to the irrigation network, another part of the Chtouka project ©Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture
The desalination project also aims to secure the irrigation of 15,000 hectares in the plain of Chtouka, an arid area marked by the advance of the desert, benefiting 1,500 farms. “The rate of progress of the irrigation network is 90.3%,” said Minister Mohammed Sadiki. The network, which should be operational by March 2022, will be based on five pumping stations, reservoirs, a main pipeline of 18.4 km and a distribution network of 480 km.
425 million investment
The future facilities will eventually produce 400,000 cubic meters of water per day using the reverse osmosis process. The resource “will be shared equitably between drinking water and irrigation water, thus contributing to the preservation of agricultural activity in the region, especially crops with high added value and high-water consumption (citrus, early vegetables), as well as the overexploited groundwater resource,” says Mohammed Sadiki. Currently, farmers Chtouka supply from the water table to irrigate thousands of hectares of plantations, causing an annual deficit of about 60 million m3 of water.
The construction of the desalination plant of Chtouka and its irrigation network required an investment of 4.48 billion Moroccan dirhams, about 425 million euros.
Inès Magoum