Morocco is the first country in the Maghreb to invest in desalination projects, bringing $2.37 billion of investment out of a total $39.3 billion allocated for projects across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
In the MENA region, Morocco ranks 6th in the top 10 of water desalination investors, with Saudi Arabia leading with $14.58 billion followed by the United Arab Emirates ($10.28 billion) and Jordan ($4.20 billion). Tunisia and Algeria, for their part, have invested $0.95 and $0.21 million, respectively.
Morocco initiated the program to install desalination and water purification plants due to constant droughts, forcing the country to face persistent aridity.
The African nation has a broad coastline on the Atlantic and Mediterranean Seas, which opens up significant opportunities for water desalination to ensure the safety of drinking water.
As part of the new strategy, five large plants were selected. The projects concern the Greater Casablanca region, the Agadir region, the eastern region and the Sahara, with two desalination plants in Laayoune and Dakhla in the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
Desalination is the process of removing dissolved mineral salts from water. For drinking purposes, the water mineralization index should not exceed 1000 milligrams per liter.