Hommam Al Nassim 
Morocco is facing a worsening water crisis as droughts continue and groundwater is depleted.
Moroccan Climate Coalition coordinator Abdelaziz Jannati said it was no longer a secret that the water crisis in Morocco was witnessing, which has become part of the public debate since the government confirmed that Morocco is experiencing a water “emergency” after successive years of drought and the depletion of underground water reservoirs in a number of regions of the country.
“Morocco is no longer witnessing a moderation in the climate, but many changes have occurred at this level in the country located on the shores of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and the succession of drought years was one of the manifestations of climate change,” he told TRT Arabic.
“In the last forty years, there has been a rise in temperatures in Morocco with an increase of 1.8 degrees Celsius, and the level of precipitation has decreased by minus 66%, and there has been a decrease in the level of rainy days or rainfall days by 34%,” he added.
The Kingdom is facing a major water challenge, which prompted King Mohammed VI to intervene more than once, when he chaired sessions devoted to the problem of water, within the framework of the continuous follow-up of this strategic issue, especially in the current context.
The move from the highest authority in the country reveals the extent of the crisis of the water situation, which is mainly reflected in the weak rates recorded at the beginning of the year in filling rates at the level of the reality of water basins and dams of the Kingdom without exception.
In the same context, the head of the Department of Water and Extreme Phenomena at the Ministry of Equipment and Water, Essam Al-Gharari, revealed that “until mid-February, the filling rate of dams was estimated at 24.7%, which constitutes a water reserve at the level of dams estimated at about 4 billion cubic meters.”
“If we compare the recorded rates with what was recorded on the same day last year, we find that the filling rate is 32%, which shows a significant decline between what was recorded this year and last year,” the official at the Ministry of Equipment and Water said.
Al-Gharari pointed out that “this exceptional water situation is equal to most of the water basins in the Kingdom with a slight variation, although there are water basins that are witnessing a very sensitive situation, namely the um al-Rabie and Souss Massa basins, and to a lesser extent the Loukos, Sebou and Moulouya basins.”
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