MOROCCO: mobilizing an additional €940 million for water in the agricultural sector

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI announced on February 16, 2022, the launch of a new emergency program in the kingdom. This initiative aims to improve water supply in response to the intensifying drought.

Unlike the Priority Drinking Water Supply and Irrigation Program 2020-2027, launched in January 2020, or the Emergency Plan announced in January 2022 by Morocco’s Minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka, which aims to provide drinking water to households and farmers, the new program has been tailored to the agricultural sector. While the resilience projects undertaken over the years are gradually bearing fruit, much remains to be done.

940 million investment

According to the Moroccan authorities, the new emergency program aims to mitigate the effects of water stress, due to the delay in rainfall, through the multiplication of irrigation projects. The water collected through these irrigation projects will also be sent to livestock farmers in the kingdom.

The Moroccan government estimates that the realization of the new emergency plan will require an investment of 940 million euros, or 10 billion Moroccan dirhams. Part of the funds will be used to finance operations to supply the market with wheat and fodder and to relieve farmers of their financial burdens.