The Chtouka desalination plant in Morocco is set for commissioning. Moroccan Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development and Water and Forests, Mohammed Sadiki, said the project which is 98.5% complete will be commissioned this month and should be operational by March 2022.
The plant which aims to improve the coverage of drinking water in the Greater Agadir has been under construction since 2108 under a public-private partnership (PPP) at a cost of US $480M. It features five pumping stations, reservoirs, a main pipeline of 18.4 km and a distribution network of 480 km. Two intakes in the ocean will bring the sea water to the catchment basin from which it will be pumped, after pre-treatment, to the desalination plant.
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Equal share
The subsidiary of the Spanish group Abengoa will also operate and maintain the plant for a period of 20 years after its inauguration. The desalination project also aims to secure the irrigation of 15,000 hectares in the plain of Chtouka, an arid area marked by the advance of the desert, benefiting 1,500 farms. According to Minister Mohammed Sadiki, the rate of progress of the irrigation network is 90.3%
“The future facilities will eventually produce 400,000 cubic meters of water per day using the reverse osmosis process. The resource will be shared equitably between drinking water and irrigation water, thus contributing to the preservation of agricultural activity in the region, especially crops with high added value and high-water consumption (citrus, early vegetables), as well as the over exploited groundwater resource. Currently, farmers Chtouka supply from the water table to irrigate thousands of hectares of plantations, causing an annual deficit of about 60 million m3 of water,” said Mohammed Sadiki.