Although the Moroccan government had anticipated that work on the Casablanca-Settat seawater desalination plant would start in mid-2023, it will finally be launched on January 23, 2024. The long-awaited news appeared in the columns of the Moroccan Arabic-language daily Assabah.
The National Electricity and Water Company (ONEE), which is implementing this desalination project as part of the Priority Drinking Water Supply and Irrigation Program 2020-2027 (PNAEPI), has chosen the Spanish group Acciona, in consortium with Moroccan companies Afriquia Gaz and Green of Africa, to build the Casablanca-Settat desalination plant. The future facility, which will cover a 50-hectare site, will in its first phase supply 200 million m3 of water per year for irrigation and drinking water supply in the cities of Casablanca, Settat, Berrechid, Azemmour and El Jadida. Work is scheduled for completion in 2026.
A second phase will extend the plant’s capacity to 300 million m3 per year by 2030. It will be located near the center of Sidi Rahhal, some 40 km southwest of Casablanca, and will be supplied from the Bouregreg and Oum Er Rbia basins in Morocco.
The aim is to reduce pressure on surface waters in the North African kingdom. These reserves have fallen drastically due to drought, which is expected to reach its sixth consecutive year in Morocco in 2024.
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Construction of the Casablanca-Settat reverse osmosis plant will cost the Moroccan government a total of 800 million euros. The desalination plant is set to be the largest of its kind in the whole of the Cherifian Kingdom.
Inès Magoum