Moroccan Water and Energy Solutions and a division of Rosatom, the Russian government’s state-owned nuclear energy firm, signed a contract on July 27, 2023, at the second Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg.
Morocco is interested in partnering with Rosatom in water desalination. This very energy-intensive technology is currently not widely used in the Middle East and North Africa due to its prohibitive power costs, according to the Middle East Institute.
The agreement permits investigating the possibility of constructing water desalination facilities utilizing Rosatom technology in Morocco.
The Moroccan Russian memorandum of understanding moves a 2017 cooperation arrangement between Rosatom and Morocco’s Ministry of Energy closer to reality. The agreement is also a component of Morocco’s gradual economic engagement with Russia.
Morocco’s partnership with Russia may help provide a cheap nuclear-powered desalination system that is powered by Moroccan uranium to address the country’s water shortage issues for human consumption, industry, and agriculture.
Morocco is home to over 73% of the world’s phosphate rock reserves, which also include the most uranium of any country—an estimated 6.9 million tons—in the globe.
The second Russia-Africa summit was preceded by the Russian government’s reaffirmation of its nuclear cooperation with Morocco in October 2022. This helped pave the way for the new MOU with Rosatom’s subsidiary.
Accordingly, Russia might provide water-stressed nations in the MENA region and surrounding regions of sub-Saharan Africa nuclear-powered desalination systems.
Rosatom is skilled in creating desalination facilities to meet the cooling requirements of the nuclear power plants it builds all around the world.
The MENA region’s significant water scarcity, which is being further aggravated by climate change, is the primary cause of the aggravating situation of food security, as seen by growing food costs and food shortages.
Most of the MENA region’s current levels of agri-food production typically use 80% or more of the water supply.
Water and Energy Solutions will particularly focus on creating mobile water desalination facilities to deliver freshwater on demand in troubled areas.
Morocco’s concentration on mobile water desalination to address this emergency is also an opportunity to enhance economic partnership with Russia through this strategic nuclear alliance.
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