National Rally criticizes PJD government over Morocco's water crisis

The National Rally of Indepenedents party criticized the previous government of the Justice and development Party for its failure to address Morocco’s escalating water crisis adequately.

“The previous governments managed water policy reactively rather than with strategic foresight,” said Leila Ahl Sidi Mouloud, a parliemantary memeber representing the National Rally during a discussion today of the Court of Auditors’s report in a plenary session of the House of Representatives.

The MP stated that the PJD government made no initiatives to use small dams. 

“Most of these dams (136 small dams) were not put under the control of water basin agencies after their completion and have largely become abandoned facilities,” Ahl Sidi Mouloud said. 

The MP explained that the report of the Court of Auditors revealed the failure to activate the national program for preventing industrial pollution. There has been no action plan for its implementation since 2009.

Ait Sidi Mouloud further added that the previous governmental authorities responsible for the water sector never conducted an evaluation of the economic profitability of the completed dams.

Relying on the aforementioned report, the MP noted the failure of the inter-sectoral unit responsible for supervising the implementation of the National Water Strategy 2009-2030 to hold any meetings since 2012. 

Ait Sidi Mouloud also pointed out the delay in the construction of large dams during the period 2010-2020: only 16 large dams out of the planned 30 were completed during this period; a completion rate of 53%. 

The report also mentioned a delay in completing studies before 2022 for the first phase of the North-South water transfer project. 

The exploitation of groundwater between 2010-2020 increased from 955 million cubic meters to 1.1 billion cubic meters annually.

Based on the report’s findings, the MP pointed out the political and ethical responsibility of the previous governments. 

“Our water security is on the verge of collapse not only due to climate change but also due to the failure to create innovative solutions to protect the high demand for the blue gold,” Ait Sidi Mouloud said. 

The MP stated that the current water stress cannot tolerate further wastage of time in finding solutions, and there is no time left to turn water security into a subject of political debate. 

“When we question the legacy, we do not do it to blame the past or to indulge in narrow political calculations. We do it, so that we all learn from it,” the MP clarified.