Morocco’s water and sanitation projects will receive funding from German Water Company – Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) after National Office for Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) signed a US$ 62 million financing agreements.
The agreements signed by ONEE Director-General, Abderrahim El Hafidi, Director of the KfW Morocco office, Markus Faschina, and Head of Water Sector Division for North Africa, Jorg Dux, will cover several projects related to drinking water supply and sanitation.
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US$ 31.8 million will go towards the supply of drinking water to small and medium-sized centers. This will increase and strengthen production, pumping, transportation, storage, and distribution of drinking water for the benefit of 1.5 million people living in different regions.
The city of Settat in Casablanca region will benefit from US$ 24.5 million which will be channeled towards improving drinking water supply for the benefit of 352,000 people.
ONEE noted that the financial assistance budgeted for the second phase of the small centers III sanitation program will increase by US$ 55.5 million and that the funding will help extend and rehabilitate sanitation systems in small and medium-sized cities.
KfW will provide a further US$ 78,000 to finance a study related to the seawater desalination plant in Sidi Ifni. The German contribution to ONEE in the sector of drinking water and liquid sanitation amounts to US$ 940 million, ONEE pointed out.
In other news, Morocco’s National Office for Electricity and Drinking Water will invest about US$ 2.8 billion in electricity projects and US$ 2.65 billion in water projects across Morocco under its new 2019-2023 strategy.
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The strategy is designed to improve access to electricity and drinking water across Morocco.
A substantial percentage of the budget will go towards electricity production projects which in accordance with Morocco’s renewable energy goals will be generated from solar, hydroelectric and wind power. Morocco intends to produce 52% renewable energy by 2050.