The Moulouya Hydraulic Basin Agency (ABHM) has illustrated the role that the “Water Police” can play in conserving water resources in an era when the increasing scarcity of water due to climate change is of increasing concern.
Water Police is one of the measures that the ABHM took to reduce water misuse. Its role is to monitor water resources and to protect groundwater from over-exploitation.
The water rationing projects are carried out as part of the agency’s communication strategy and in execution of the national drinking water and irrigation water supply program (2020-2027) aimed at optimum management of water resources.
The Water Police, which the Ministry of Water has made available to hydraulic basin agencies throughout the Kingdom, play an important role in implementing measures to conserve water usage and to preserve the public water domain in general.
Driss Fazzani of the Water Police Department of the ABHM explained in a statement to MAP that the Water Police ensures that users hold a legal drilling permit, and that they comply with the clauses contained therein.
The primary objective is to raise awareness among consumers–whether relating to surface or underground water–of the need to save water and protect it from waste and pollution, he added.
In order to protect water resources against the negative effects of pollution and all forms of illicit exploitation of ground and surface water, Law n°36-15 relating to water has delegated to the Water Police the control of the public hydraulic domain.
In addition to judicial police personnel, water policing tasks are implemented under the jurisdiction of the agents of water basin agencies, the government’s water authority, and regional agricultural investment boards.
According to the agency’s data, the Water Police issued 154 citations in 2023 in the Moulouya hydraulic basin intervention zone alone, including ones relating to unauthorized drilling of wells and water points, and to occupation of the public hydraulic domain in addition to construction in waterways.
The Moulouya basin, located in the northeast of the Kingdom and covering an area of 74,000 square kilometers, extends over four regions. These comprise the Eastern region, as well as Fez-Meknes, Daraa-Tafilalet and Beni Mellal-Khenifra regions.