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Government Measures to ‘Ensure Water Security’ in Morocco

Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine El Othmani (Reuters)
Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine El Othmani (Reuters)
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Government Measures to ‘Ensure Water Security’ in Morocco

Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine El Othmani (Reuters)
Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine El Othmani (Reuters)

Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine El Othmani has announced a set of measures to tackle water shortages and provide drinking water, especially in villages.

These measures are to be taken due to poor rains and the successive years of droughts.

Addressing the House of Representatives during its monthly accountability session, which focused on the government's policy in providing water resources, Othmani said ensuring “water security” has played a major role in development and stability.

This comes in light of the dynamism witnessed by the Moroccan economy, especially in the agriculture, industry, and tourism sectors.

Meanwhile, the Premier affirmed his good relations with King Mohammed VI, noting that all major and strategic plans were overseen by the King, and the strategies adopted by the government were approved by the Cabinet.

Morocco’s geographic location has placed it among countries that have a great variation in the distribution of its water resources, which necessitated, since the 1960s, a proactive, far-reaching policy approach in the field of water, Othmani explained.

He stressed that this policy was mainly based on the construction of dams to store water in rainy years to be used later to avoid water shortages, and it was supervised by the late King Hassan II.

The policy has enabled the construction of a significant water infrastructure distributed geographically among the Kingdom’s regions, he added.

The official said 145 large dams and 130 small dams were currently being used, in addition to 14 large dams and 20 small dams under construction, as well as thousands of wells for extracting groundwater.

This has improved access to clean drinking water and has met industrial and tourist water needs, as well as development of large-scale irrigation farming in light of difficult conditions characterized by poor rains and the successive periods of drought.

Othmani also reviewed the measures to be taken by the government in the framework of implementation of the 2020-2027 National Drinking Water Supply and Irrigation Program and the draft of the National Water Plan for the period between 2020 and 2030.

He presented the five pillars on which the national program is based, explaining that the policy of building dams and desalinating seawater would continue.

He also announced opening three major desalination plants over the coming years.

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Arab World

Sudanese Stakeholders Hold Roundtable Talks in Geneva

A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
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Sudanese Stakeholders Hold Roundtable Talks in Geneva

A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)

Geneva has hosted a third “roundtable” of meetings involving Sudanese political and civil groups aimed at bridging the gap between the country’s warring parties. These talks, coordinated by the French organization Promediation, follow similar meetings held previously in Cairo and Geneva. The primary goals are to negotiate a ceasefire and facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians.

The two-day meetings, which began on Monday, include representatives from the Coordination of Democratic Civil Forces (Tagadum), the pro-army Democratic Bloc coalition, and armed movements aligned with the bloc. However, some groups have announced their boycott of the meetings.

The Democratic Bloc has shown conflicting stances on attending the Geneva talks. Mohammed Zakaria, spokesperson for the bloc and a member of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), announced his group’s decision not to participate.

Omar Khalafallah, a leader in the Democratic Unionist Party and another bloc spokesperson, refuted Zakaria’s statement, insisting that the bloc would attend the meetings to promote a national vision.

A source within the Democratic Bloc told Asharq Al-Awsat that the meetings revealed significant internal divisions in the coalition. The JEM, led by current Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim, appears to be charting its own course, which the source described as a form of defection.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Sharif Mohammed Osman, a leader in Tagadum and the political secretary of the Sudanese Congress Party, explained that the meetings seek to achieve consensus on ending the war through negotiated solutions, starting with a humanitarian truce to ensure aid delivery and the opening of safe corridors.

These measures are considered preliminary steps toward a ceasefire and a peaceful resolution to the conflict, he underlined.

A wide array of civilian leaders are participating in the talks, including key figures from Tagadum, such as Sudanese Congress Party leader Omar Al-Dukair, Federal Gathering Party leader Babiker Faisal, and head of the Sudan Liberation Movement – Transitional Council Al-Hadi Idris.

Osman expressed optimism that the participants would issue a unified final statement addressing the peaceful resolution of the war and agreeing on a humanitarian truce to facilitate aid delivery.

In October, Cairo hosted a similar meeting, which resulted in a final statement signed by the participating groups, except for the Sudan Liberation Movement – Minni Minnawi faction and the JEM – Jibril Ibrahim faction, which refused to endorse the Cairo declaration despite attending the discussions.

Promediation, a French organization supported by the French and Swiss foreign ministries, has played a consistent role in Sudanese affairs. Since June 2022, it has organized roundtable discussions, initially focusing on negotiations between Darfuri armed movements before expanding its scope to include Sudanese political and civil forces in the wake of the war.