The Canada-African Development Bank Climate Fund (CACF) approved a loan of $18 million to Morocco’s largest phosphate and fertilizer processing company, OCP Group, to support the construction of three seawater desalination plants in Morocco, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) stated in a press release on Tuesday. This is only part of a $36.3 million loan already approved by CACF to advance measures to address climate change on the African continent.
The new projects will enable OCP to produce and sell 105 million cubic meters of potable water to around 1.5 million people in and around the cities of Safi and El Jadida.
The bank is co-financing the project with $150 million.
The funding comes at a time when Morocco is facing extreme water scarcity and ranks 27th among countries most at risk of chronic water shortages, according to the World Resource Institute.
“As we witness more severe and more frequent impacts of climate change around the world and particularly on the African continent,” said Gareth Phillips, Manager of the Climate and Environment Finance Division of the African Development Bank, “it is increasingly important that we identify and address adaptation needs of the most vulnerable people and infrastructure in Africa.”
The CACF also approved $20.4 million for two other public sector, climate-change-related projects in Senegal and Nigeria.
The construction of the seawater desalination plants is part of the memorandum of understanding signed between OCP and the government on July 5th, aimed at producing potable water from desalination plants in the two cities, as part of an urgent water plan.
The agreement aims to produce 85 million cubic meters during the period between 2023 and 2025, before rising to 110 million cubic meters annually, starting in 2026.
This year already, OCP has produced 10 million cubic meters of desalinated water in Safi and 30 million cubic meters in El Jadida.