Water supply and sanitation in Morocco are provided by a combination of national and regional public operators. Service provision has undergone significant reforms in recent years, with the replacement of private concessionaires and municipal utilities by regional multi-service public companies (SRM).
These regional companies are responsible for the distribution of water, electricity and sanitation services at the territorial level. In parallel, the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) remains a central actor, notably in bulk water production, supply to local operators, and service provision in smaller towns and rural areas.
Access to water supply has improved significantly since the early 2000s, while progress in sanitation has been more gradual. Challenges remain, particularly the limited level of wastewater treatment, the absence of household connections in some low-income urban areas, and the sustainability of certain rural systems.
In response, public authorities have implemented several national programmes. A National Sanitation Programme, launched in 2005, aimed to expand wastewater treatment capacity and improve urban sewerage coverage. Efforts to extend access to water and sanitation services to disadvantaged populations have also been undertaken, notably through the National Human Development Initiative.
Water resources
Conventional water resources
Morocco has about 22 billion cubic meters of conventional renewable water resources per year equivalent to 730 cubic meter/capita/year. Before taking into account drought years of the 1990s and 2000s total renewable water resources were estimated to be much higher at around 29 billion cubic meters Royaume du Maroc:Débat National sur l'Eau. L'avenir de l'eau, l'affaire de tous, 2006, p. 3World Resources Institute:Water Resources and Freshwater Ecosystems: Morocco . Retrieved October 28, 2009. However, only up to 20 billion cubic meter per year can be economically captured (ressources mobilisables), including 16 billion m3 of surface water and 4 billion m3 of groundwater. Morocco has about 100 dams of various sizes with a total storage capacity of 15 billion cubic meter. It was estimated that in 2004 about 13.5 billion m3 were withdrawn, or about 67% of available resources. 83% of withdrawals were for agriculture and 17% for municipal and industrial uses.Mokhtar Bzioui, UN Water Africa:Rapport National 2004 sur les ressources en eau du Maroc , November 2004, p. 29-30 However, water resources are not divided equally in space and time, with most of the water resources available in the North and rainfall limited to the winter. In addition, the quality of water resources is degraded through pollution, in particular in the Sebou basin.
Morocco is divided in seven major river basins and a number of smaller basins. The seven major basins from North to South are the Loukkos River, the Moulouya River, the Sebou River, the Bou Regreg River, the Oum Er-Rbia River, the Tensift River and the Souss-Massa-Drâa basin. Except for the Loukkos River, all these rivers originate in the Atlas Mountains.There are few inter-basin transfers in Morocco, the most important ones being the Rocade canal from the Oum Er-Rbia basin to the Tensift basin near Marrakesh, a transfer from near the mouth of the Oum er-Rbia to Casablanca and a transfer from the Bouregreg River also to Casablanca. There are tentative plans for a large north-south water transfer project with an average conveyance capacity of around 2.74 million cubic meter/day (0.75 billion m3/year) over 500–600 km from the Sebou River basin to the water-stressed Tensift basin.Global Water Intelligence:Morocco to deliver boost to desalination sector. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
Water use for municipal and industrial uses was about 2.28 billion m3 in 2003, of which 0.7 billion m3 (31%) were from groundwater and 1.58 billion m3 (69%) from surface water. Groundwater resources are overexploited in parts of the country, in particular in the Sous-Massa area in the South where irrigation is the predominant water user.
Wastewater treatment and reuse
So far there is limited planned reuse of reclaimed water in Morocco, given that only 21% of the collected wastewater undergoes any treatment. In 2009 there were more than 100 wastewater treatment plants in Morocco, mostly serving small and medium-sized towns located in the interior or the country. The first wastewater treatment plants in Morocco were built by small municipalities using a wide range of technologies. Because of the limited financial and technical capacities of those municipalities practically all of these 28 plants ceased functioning shortly after they were completed. This triggered a decision in 2000 to gradually transfer the responsibility for sanitation in small and medium-sized towns to the national utility ONEP.Royaume du Maroc/Banque mondiale/KfW:Revue Stratégique du Programme National d'Assainissement, Mai 2008, p. 4 In 2009 the latter has built or was in the process of building 43 plants, mostly using the stabilization pond technology, but also one activated sludge plant and a few trickling filter plants. The track record of operating these plants is better than for the plants operated by municipalities, partly because the predominant technology - stabilization ponds - does not require electricity. Its lower operating costs make it less vulnerable to disruptions in the case of strained operating budgets. In larger cities, only very few municipal utilities (Régies) operate wastewater treatment plants. Their track record at operating them is mixed: A plant operated by the Agadir utility works well, while plants operated by the utilities of Beni Mellal and Nador do not function. These plants use the activated sludge technology which requires electricity. The Marakkesh utility was constructing a large plant in 2009, and the Fez utility was in the process of bidding for a plant. This process experienced a setback when the French development agency AFD and the European Investment Bank withdrew their financing for the plant, citing non-respect of tender procedures as the reason.Global Water Intelligence:AFD departure raises eyebrows at Fes, 16 December 2009. Retrieved 22 December 2009.
Compared to the overall water use in Morocco, reclaimed water can only provide a fraction of the country's increasing water needs. Furthermore, there is no regulatory framework for water reuse and no established system to recover the costs for reclaimed water from users. The country's largest reuse project is currently under construction in Marrakesh, where reclaimed water from a 90,000 m3/day plant will be reused primarily to irrigate golf courses. The tertiary treatment and the network to distribute the reclaimed water will be financed by private investors. Redal, the utility serving Rabat, was carrying out a study in 2009 to assess the feasibility of wastewater reuse to irrigate green spaces in the city.Global Water Intelligence:Moroccan capital eyes greater reuse capacity, January 2009. Retrieved December 22, 2009. Besides this there have been a few scattered small-scale pilot reuse projects since the 1980s, some of which have been abandoned. Among the sustainable projects is a project to irrigate golf courses in Ben Slimane that has been operating since 1997 with a capacity of 5,600 cubic meter/day.World Bank and KfW:Revue stratégique du Porgamme National d'Assainissement, 2008, p. 4, quoting a study by Xanthoulis, Soudi and Khalayoune of 2001 In 2009 a large reuse project was planned in Agadir to irrigate a golf course and municipal gardens with 50,000 cubic meters/day. In 2009 there were also two projects for direct, planned reuse in agriculture in Oujda and Beni Mellal. These projects are financed by the National Environmental Fund and would add a funding to the plants. In 2009 the water department of the State Secretariat for Water and Environment carried out a national study for water reuse.
Desalination Morocco is increasingly looking towards seawater desalination as a source to supply its increasing water needs for drinking, industry and mining. The Secrétariat d'État chargé de l'Eau et de l'Environnement has commissioned a study on desalination due to be completed by the end of 2009. Among others, the study foresees a very large new desalination plant in the Casablanca region with a capacity of around 685,000 m3/day (250 million m3/year), or more than 10% of total municipal water use in Morocco.
In May 2014 the national utility ONEE signed a Build-Operate-Transfer contract for a 100,000 m3/day reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant in Agadir with a consortium between the Spanish firm Abengoa Water and the investment fund InfraMaroc. The project had been under preparation for seven years. The payment is in local currency and the Abengoa-led consortium was the only one that submitted a bid for the project that other firms considered to be too risky.
In June 2025, Yabiladi reported that the Casablanca-Settat region was installing 28 modular seawater desalination and demineralization units to address severe water stress. Seventeen were already operational, with total investment reaching 400 million dirhams (272 million from the state, 128 million from the region). The initiative, led by the Regional Multiservice Company, complements larger projects such as the Sebou–Bouregreg water transfer and the planned Casablanca plant, which will eventually cover 80% of the region’s drinking water needs.
Access
In 2011 82% of the population of Morocco had access to an improved water source. Specifically, this means that 59% of Moroccans had access to piped water in their house or in the yard of their house. As of 2004, for 11% the main source of water supply was a public stand pipe, for 5.6% it was a protected well. 1.5% of Moroccans, essentially in rural areas, relied on rainwater harvesting as their principal water source. 7% collected water from springs. Half of these springs, supplying 3.5% of the population, were estimated to be protected. All the above sources are considered as improved water sources by the WHO, thus bringing the total to 82%.WHO/UNICEF:Joint Monitoring Program for Water and Sanitation:Coverage Estimates for Improved Drinking Water, 2008, quoting a 2003-04 survey on population and family health (Enquête sur la Population et la Santé Familiale) of the Pan-Arab Project for Family Health (PAPFAM)
18% of the population did not have access to an improved water source. This share is split up as follows: 1%, both in urban and rural areas, used water from tankers as their main water source. 7% collected water from unprotected public wells and 4% from unprotected private wells inside their home or yard. 2.5% took their water directly from rivers and open reservoirs. Another 3.5% were estimated to use an unprotected spring as their main source of water supply, so that in total 18% of the population lacked access to an improved water source.
WATER Urban Rural Total Tap inside the house 82.6% 18.1% 58.3% Tap in the yard 2.6% 1.7% 2.2% Bottled Water 0.6% 0.3% 0.5% Standpipe 10.8% 11% 10.9% Protected wells 0.8% 13.5% 5.6% Open wells 1% 26.6% 10.7% Spring The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program for Water and Sanitation estimates that half of all springs are protected springs, and that this half can thus be considered an improved water source. 0.9% 17.2% 7.1% River or creek 0.0% 5.4% 2.0% Reservoir of a dam 0.0% 0.3% 0.1% Rainwater harvesting 0.0% 4.0% 1.5% Tanker truck 0.6% 1.5% 0.9% Others 0.1% 0.4% 0.2% TOTAL 100% 100% 100%
Source: Enquête sur la Population et la Santé Familiale (Population and Family Health Survey) 2004.EPSF, Morocco 2003/2004 (PAPFAM)