Morocco hopes to fend off global warming with $600m “water highway” - Global Construction Review
Morocco hopes to fend off global warming with $600m “water highway” - Global Construction Review
The 66km pipeline cost around $600m to build, funded by the government and regional authorities, and was built by four domestic contractors. It connects the River Sebou, which rises in the Middle Atlas, to the River Bouregreg. The water will be retained by the Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah and Al Massira dams.
The “water highway” uses 3.2m-diameter steel pipes fabricated in Turkey. The process begins with the partial diversion of the Sebou to a pumping complex that purifies the water and transfers it to a second station, which then directs it into the pipe network.
According to Nizar Baraka, the water minister who is credited with devising the scheme, the water will be used to irrigate more than 176,000ha of agricultural land and improve water security for 12 million people.
The project is part of a $14.3bn plan to try and insulate Morocco from the effects of climate change. It has one of the lowest water supplies per capita in the world, averaging 645 cubic metres per person a year in 2015, well below the global water poverty line of 1,000 cubic metres.
The World Bank said this figure could drop to 500 cubic metres by 2050, approaching the international threshold of extreme water scarcity.
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”