Stressing the “vital nature of developing research in hydrology and hydrogeology in pilot regions that can serve as models on a national scale”, the geology expert, who has conducted numerous international research projects on the water issue, noted that “knowing the resource, knowing how to exploit it, treat it and distribute it using innovative techniques will allow for a coherent approach between water, agricultural and industrial policies”.
He explained in a statement to MAP that “such work will make it possible to anticipate and manage in advance the major and crucial problems that await Morocco in the decades to come.”
After recalling that in view of the economic and agricultural growth of the Kingdom, Professor El Albani noted that “the Kingdom’s needs for water are growing while the resource is becoming scarce”, stressing that “in this context, overexploitation and obsolete distribution systems are no longer acceptable” and that “pollution (salinization, pesticides, heavy metals) make the treatment and reuse of water increasingly costly”.
For him, “all of these bad practices have a direct impact on the environment with noticeable harmful effects on the quality of both surface and ground water.”
Added to this state of affairs, continues the Franco-Moroccan expert, is climate change, the effects of which are increasingly visible each year and which “has a greater impact on water reserves, particularly those in semi-arid territories, which are already under water stress.”
He said that Morocco “is one of the regions of the Maghreb where the change will be most exacerbated since it will go from a semi-arid to an arid climate in the coming decades according to the latest IPCC estimates.”
The environmental expert stressed, in this context, the need to take “urgent measures” for water treatment and desalination to remedy the water deficit.
2024-08-31 08:06:34