Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan launched, Monday in El Jadida Province (180 km southwest of Rabat), the construction works of the largest desalination plant in Africa, which will have an annual production output of 300 million m3 and will benefit some 7.5 million inhabitants.
The future plant, which will meet the growing demand for water in Greater Casablanca, Settat, Berrechid, Bir Jdid and the surrounding regions, will be built in two stages on a 50-hectare site and will require an overall investment of 6.5 billion MAD.
During the first stage, scheduled to be commissioned at the end of 2026, the plant is expected to reach a capacity of 548,000 m3 of treated water per day (200 million m3 per year), expandable, in a second stage (planned for mid-2028) to 822,000 m3 per day, or an additional 100 million m3 per year, including 50 million for agricultural use.
This large-scale project provides for building a reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant and setting up a system to transport the drinking water produced, comprising three pumping stations, three storage tanks and a distribution network of almost 130 kilometers of supply pipes. This drinking water transport system will require an investment of 3 billion MAD.
The latest-generation Casablanca desalination plant will comprise two 1,850-ml seawater intake pipes, a 2,500-ml discharge outfall, reverse osmosis desalination facilities (pressure filters and microfilters), a sludge treatment unit, a control and management center and pumping stations, in addition to a storage reservoir for the produced drinking water.
With a drinking water production cost estimated at 4.48 DH/m3, the future plant will be 100% powered by renewable energy and its management will be fully automated.
This project is an integral part of the “Improving water supply” strategy of the 2020-2027 National Drinking Water Supply and Irrigation Program, launched in 2020 with a budget of 143 billion MAD.