A new seawater desalination plant in Dakhla is almost ready to begin operating. The project will provide drinking water and irrigation water while helping tackle water shortages in the region. The plant will produce about 112 million litres of fresh water every day. That is enough to fill around 45 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Over a year, it will produce about 37 billion litres of water. The plant can also be expanded in the future.
The project cost between 2.5bn and 2.6bn Moroccan dirhams (about $250m). Nareva and Engie built it through a public-private partnership.
The desalination plant is part of the 85bn-dirham Southern Provinces Development Programme.
About 5,000 hectares of farmland, roughly the size of 7,000 football pitches, will receive irrigation water from the plant. Farmers will mainly grow vegetables and other high-value crops.
The site includes two irrigation basins that can each store 97 million litres of water, as well as two treated water tanks with a capacity of 2.5 million litres each.
A dedicated 60-megawatt wind farm will power the plant. Using wind energy will cut operating costs and allow the desalination process to run without carbon emissions.
The Dakhla project is expected to create more than 25,000 permanent direct and indirect jobs in farming, food processing and distribution.
It will also help protect groundwater supplies while providing a reliable source of water for Dakhla’s fishing, maritime and agro-industrial sectors.
