Morocco increases irrigation budget
The government of Morocco has increased the budget set for irrigation. The country’s Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch said the budget has been raised from US $10.8 billion to US $14billion.
The funds will be used to implement the National Drinking Water Supply and Irrigation Program (PNAEPI) 2020-2027, a state program to accelerate the adoption of irrigation for farming and mitigate the effect of adverse weather on agriculture. The country has been greatly affected with drought being an agric- rainfall-dependent nation.
Water resources
“We want to adapt to various measures to address the delay in the deployment of a number of projects, in parallel with the launch of studies on new projects that will see the light of day in the short and medium term. The government has ensured in this context to accelerate the pace of investment in this area and to strengthen the budget dedicated to the program that was raised from 115 to 150 billion dirhams. The irrigation program is part of a nationwide strategy to mitigate the effect of dwindling water resources. Water security is a challenge that the government is working to address the water stress that our country due to successive years of drought and scarcity of water resources on the surface as in the aquifers,” said Aziz Akhannouch said in a statement.
Morocco ranks among the countries with the lowest water resources per capita. World Bank research further argues that water resources per capita could drop even further by 2050 to 500 cubic meters per capita, approaching the international threshold of extreme water scarcity.
