The Water Highway, an ambitious project linking the Oued Sebou River to the Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah dam near Rabat went online on Monday afternoon.
The project involved the construction of a 66-kilometer structure designed to transport 400 million cubic meters of water annually from Oued Sebou to the Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah dam near Rabat.
With a total budget of $590 million, the project was funded by the government and regional authorities, and aims to provide potable water to Casablanca and its surrounding regions.
The project was executed in collaboration with four local companies and the use of advanced steel pipelines.
The project is one of many Morocco has undertaken in recent years to fend off the threat of water scarcity, with dams and desalination plants becoming a priority within state projects.
Earlier this year, the Moroccan government launched construction work for 20 dams with a total storage capacity of over 5 billion cubic meters. The government further disclosed plans to inaugurate 1000 small-sized dams by 2030.
Through a 2020-2050 plan, the country is equally allocating $37.6 billion over a period of 30 years to boost the national water grids for domestic uses and for agriculture. The plan also covers measures to protect the water supply from the climate threat.
Increasing the number of dams is one focus of Morocco’s strategy to maintain water security. The country is also investing intensively in desalination projects, with three stations currently under construction.
The stations would have a total production capacity of over 200,000 cubic meters a day.
In addition to investing in infrastructure, the country is equally looking to promote the adoption of an irrigation grid to optimize the use of water in agriculture, as the sector is currently responsible for 88% of national water consumption.
This mega-project is in line with the King’s directives contained in the royal speech of October 14, 2022 on the occasion of the opening of the first session of the second legislative year of the eleventh legislature, on the interconnection of watersheds.
The aim is to divert excess water from the Sebou basin, which used to be lost to the Atlantic Ocean, to the Bouregreg basin, in order to ensure the supply of drinking water to the Rabat-Casablanca axis for a population estimated at around 12 million, and to relieve pressure on the al-Massira dam.
The project took around nine months to complete, and was gradually commissioned on August 24, 2023, to carry out the necessary tests on the equipment and divert the water with an initial flow rate of no more than 3 cubic meters per second, the Ministry points out, adding that the next stage will involve gradually increasing the water flow rate to reach 15 cubic meters per second, enabling the transfer of an annual volume of surplus water to the Sebou basin of between 350 and 400 million cubic meters.
The project, the total cost of which is estimated at around 6 billion dirhams, comprises a water catchment facility at the guard dam on the Oued Sebou, 67 km of steel canals with a diameter of 3200 mm, two pumping stations with a flow rate of 15 cubic meters per second, and a basin to convey the water to the Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdullah dam reservoir.
The Water Highway – The Water Highway – Oued Sebou – Morocco – Rabat
