The Laayoune seawater desalination plant in Morocco is set to begin operations. The Office national de l’électricité et de l’eau potable (Onee) announced operations will start by the end of this year.
Abderrahim El Hafidi, the Director-General of the Onee inspected the project site where preparations for the commissioning tests of the first units of the project are ongoing and described it as a “structuring and strategic project” for provinces in the South of the Kingdom set to have “very positive” impacts on the economic and development dynamics that the region is currently experiencing.
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Laayoune seawater desalination plant
Construction of the Laayoune seawater desalination plant begun at the beginning of 2021 with a six months completion timeframe. It involves construction of a new desalination station with a production capacity of 26,000 m3 / d of water from coastal boreholes. Three storage tanks with a cumulative capacity of 5,500m³ and pumping stations to facilitate the delivery of water to households in Laâyoune will also be developed.
“This flagship project will increase the production capacity of drinking water to 60,000m3 / d and as a result, help meet the drinking water needs of the inhabitants of Laâyoune and El Marsa as well as the Foum centers, El Oued and Tarouma until 2035 at the least,” said Abderrahim El Hafidi.
ONEE has also revealed plans for the implementation of a second phase of the Laayoune Seawater Desalination Plant. This phase involves the construction of a direct seawater intake over a 2 km stretch and adaptation of the pre-treatment system to strengthen the raw water supply to the station.
