Morocco has gained the equivalent of at least one additional year of drinking water supply after weeks of sustained rainfall sharply improved the country’s water reserves, easing pressure after successive years of drought, authorities said.
Water inflows into Morocco’s dams reached about 4.07 billion cubic metres between September and January 20, Equipment and Water Minister Nizar Baraka told the House of Councillors on Tuesday. Most of that volume – around 3.6 billion cubic metres – was recorded over the past 40 days, significantly reshaping dam levels nationwide.
Rainfall since September totalled 121.5 millimetres, more than double the amount registered over the same period last year and nearly 25 percent above the long-term average recorded between 1990 and 2020, the minister said. The improvement marks a rare reversal for a country that has faced chronic water stress and repeated droughts in recent years.
“These figures are encouraging after several years of severe pressure on water resources,” Baraka said, while cautioning that Morocco must continue structural reforms to secure long-term water supply.
Snowfall also played a key role in the recovery. Snow-covered areas expanded to more than 55,000 square kilometres at their peak before stabilising at around 22,600 square kilometres, a level not seen since 2018. Combined with rainfall, this helped raise national dam filling rates from about 28 percent to 48 percent within weeks.
Several major river basins reported sharp gains. In the Sebou basin, one of the country’s most important water sources, reserves climbed from 36 percent to 57 percent, with stored volumes exceeding 3.1 billion cubic metres. Four large dams surpassed their maximum capacity, prompting controlled water releases.
The Oum Er-Rbia basin also saw a strong rebound. Stored water increased from around 250 million cubic metres last year to more than 1.17 billion cubic metres, with filling rates rising from just 5% to 24%. Dams including Aït Messaoud and Moulay Youssef exceeded their storage limits during the recent rains.
One of the most striking recoveries was recorded in the Bouregreg and Chaouia basin, which supplies water to the Rabat-Casablanca corridor. Filling rates surged to 95.5 percent, with total reserves exceeding one billion cubic metres. Several dams in the basin released surplus water after reaching full capacity.
The Loukkos basin in northern Morocco reached a filling rate of more than 64 percent, up from 45 percent a year earlier, while four dams exceeded their storage thresholds. In Souss-Massa, a region heavily affected by drought, reserves more than tripled to about 382 million cubic metres, securing an additional year of drinking water supply and extending coverage in some areas by up to two years.
The Tensift basin recorded a filling rate of 75.7 percent, a level last seen in mid-2017. In contrast, improvements were more limited in the Drâa-Oued Noun basin, where water levels remained close to last year’s figures, while the Moulouya basin stayed broadly stable despite excess water at several dams.
At the national level, Baraka said the recent gains translated into an average of one additional year of drinking water supply, with disparities across basins ranging from one to three years depending on local conditions.
Despite the positive turn, the minister stressed that Morocco must continue accelerating infrastructure projects to reduce vulnerability to future droughts. He pointed to the Tamri dam, where construction timelines have been shortened by three years, with completion and initial filling expected by June.
Authorities have also drilled more than 4,200 exploratory boreholes to supply rural areas and expanded rainwater harvesting projects and large storage cisterns across several regions.
Morocco is increasingly relying on basin interconnection projects to balance regional disparities. Transfers from the Sebou basin toward Bouregreg have already exceeded 950 million cubic metres, while a second phase is extending the network toward the Oum Er-Rbia basin.
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Desalination remains a cornerstone of national water policy. Current capacity stands at about 350 million cubic metres per year, with plans to increase output to 1.7 billion cubic metres by 2030 through new plants along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts.
Wastewater treatment is also being expanded, with treated volumes expected to reach 100 million cubic metres by 2027. Together, these measures form part of Morocco’s National Water Plan through 2050, aimed at securing drinking water supplies for urban and rural communities amid growing climate risks.
