Facing the growing risk of water shortage (cf. upcoming article on water shortage), Morocco has adapted its national water management plan through the National Programme for Drinking Water Supply and Irrigation (PNAEPI) for the 2020-2027 horizon.
In order to increase water supply, the Programme provides not only for the construction of 20 new dams but also for several desalination plants. By reducing the amount of salt present in saltwater (and brackish waters), desalination makes it possible to obtain fresh water for domestic, agricultural or industrial use.
By making the waters of Morocco's long coastline exploitable, desalination is a promising technology. But will it be enough to eliminate the risk of water shortage?
Ambitious projects by 2030
Desalination is not a new process in Morocco, with the first units appearing as early as the 1970s in Boujdour and Tarfaya. Since then, about a dozen stations have been built (cf. map) with a total desalination capacity of 100,000 cubic meters per day. Future projects are much more ambitious: between 3 and 20 desalination units should be built by 2030. The largest, located in Casablanca, aims for a seawater desalination capacity of 300,000 cubic meters per day. An additional reserve of fresh water that would more than meet the daily needs of 4.57 million Casablancans, namely 365,000 cubic meters (based on 80 litres per day, the daily reference domestic consumption of a Casablanca resident in 2014).
The drinking water shortage in the country's largest city thus seems to be solved, but at what cost?
the triple cost of desalination
Removing salt from seawater is not as easy as it seems. Desalinating seawater is a complex and costly process, in terms of energy, financial and environmental, regardless of the process used. It can be carried out according to two types of processes: thermal, by distillation for example, or membrane-based, less energy-intensive; reverse osmosis being the most common membrane process. In Morocco, reverse osmosis will most likely be the process of choice for future units according to ONEE : here is an estimate of its triple cost, for seawater desalination.
For more technical details on the different desalination processes, a detailed description is provided in some scientific articles .
Energy cost: enough to increase our energy bill by 13%
The figure: 4-6 kWh/m3
Let's take the example of Casablanca. If we assume that all drinking water will come from the future desalination plant in the region, more than 117 kWh of electricity would be needed to meet the entire annual drinking water needs of a single Casablanca resident, or 13% of their current electricity consumption. For the entire Casablanca agglomeration, this equates to 535 GWh.
For agricultural use, desalinated water requirements are much higher: 4,000 to 6,000 cubic meters per hectare each year. Considering the 19,000 hectares where watermelon was grown in 2021, and requiring 6,000 cubic meters of water per hectare and per year, desalinating this quantity of water would require nearly 456 GWh of electricity.
Financial cost: desalination is a reasonable solution for drinking water and for rare crops
The figure: 0.45–2.51 $/m3 (average across 5 countries) - 0.9$-10 dhs/m3 (Morocco)
The cost of producing a cubic meter of desalinated water is highly variable, depending on the amount of initial investment, the capacity of the facility and the cost of energy. The cost cited in dollars comes from an economic study concerning several countries, although Morocco was not among them. In Morocco, this cost would be significantly reduced by the low cost of electricity, at approximately 10 dirhams per cubic meter .
Facing the growing risk of water shortage (cf. upcoming article on water shortage), Morocco has adapted its national water management plan through the National Programme for Drinking Water Supply and Irrigation (PNAEPI) for the 2020-2027 horizon.
In order to increase water supply, the Programme provides not only for the construction of 20 new dams but also for several desalination plants. By reducing the amount of salt present in saltwater (and brackish waters), desalination makes it possible to obtain fresh water for domestic, agricultural or industrial use.
By making the waters of Morocco's long coastline exploitable, desalination is a promising technology. But will it be enough to eliminate the risk of water shortage?
Ambitious projects by 2030
Desalination is not a new process in Morocco, with the first units appearing as early as the 1970s in Boujdour and Tarfaya. Since then, about a dozen stations have been built (cf. map) with a total desalination capacity of 100,000 cubic meters per day. Future projects are much more ambitious: between 3 and 20 desalination units should be built by 2030. The largest, located in Casablanca, aims for a seawater desalination capacity of 300,000 cubic meters per day. An additional reserve of fresh water that would more than meet the daily needs of 4.57 million Casablancans, namely 365,000 cubic meters (based on 80 litres per day, the daily reference domestic consumption of a Casablanca resident in 2014).
The drinking water shortage in the country's largest city thus seems to be solved, but at what cost?
the triple cost of desalination
Removing salt from seawater is not as easy as it seems. Desalinating seawater is a complex and costly process, in terms of energy, financial and environmental, regardless of the process used. It can be carried out according to two types of processes: thermal, by distillation for example, or membrane-based, less energy-intensive; reverse osmosis being the most common membrane process. In Morocco, reverse osmosis will most likely be the process of choice for future units according to ONEE : here is an estimate of its triple cost, for seawater desalination.
For more technical details on the different desalination processes, a detailed description is provided in some scientific articles .
Energy cost: enough to increase our energy bill by 13%
The figure: 4-6 kWh/m3
Let's take the example of Casablanca. If we assume that all drinking water will come from the future desalination plant in the region, more than 117 kWh of electricity would be needed to meet the entire annual drinking water needs of a single Casablanca resident, or 13% of their current electricity consumption. For the entire Casablanca agglomeration, this equates to 535 GWh.
For agricultural use, desalinated water requirements are much higher: 4,000 to 6,000 cubic meters per hectare each year. Considering the 19,000 hectares where watermelon was grown in 2021, and requiring 6,000 cubic meters of water per hectare and per year, desalinating this quantity of water would require nearly 456 GWh of electricity.
Financial cost: desalination is a reasonable solution for drinking water and for rare crops
The figure: 0.45–2.51 $/m3 (average across 5 countries) - 0.9$-10 dhs/m3 (Morocco)
The cost of producing a cubic meter of desalinated water is highly variable, depending on the amount of initial investment, the capacity of the facility and the cost of energy. The cost cited in dollars comes from an economic study concerning several countries, although Morocco was not among them. In Morocco, this cost would be significantly reduced by the low cost of electricity, at approximately 10 dirhams per cubic meter .