Morocco: Addressing water scarcity
For the past few years, water stress has been accelerated world wide -
with more severity in the Middle East North African region (MENA).
Simultaneously, the economic boom of countries like Morocco has
triggered a faster water demand that more likely will not be coped
with, given the limited resources that the country has, and for this
reason importing water is an imperative necessity.
This paper
assesses two technologies to mitigate the water scarcity in Morocco
and therefore enhance its economic performance. These include
polyethylene bags filled with water to be towed from Turkey and the
intercontinental water pipeline that will transport water from the
Amazon river in Brazil. A cost-benefit analysis is implemented to
evaluate how feasible both technologies are, from an economic
perspective, considering factors such as the GDP growth due to water
availability and the advantages that both approaches imply. The service
provision and its characteristics of affordability, environmental
protection and predictability are also considered from a public
perspective in the analysis.
The main findings after comparing
the two technologies show that it is cheaper to import water with the
polyethylene bags but the source of the intercontinental water pipeline
tends to be more reliable in terms of volume, but the risk for such
infrastructure is higher in terms of potential security issues.
Contact information |
B. Bellettini (ed), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization , 2009
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News type | Inbrief |
File link |
http://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/Document/0907/Economic_valuation_of_two_technologies_to_import_water_A_case_study_of_Morocco.pdf |
Source of information | Eldis |
Keyword(s) | water scarcity, import water |
Subject(s) | INFRASTRUCTURES , MEASUREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTATION , RISKS AND CLIMATOLOGY , WATER DEMAND |
Relation | http://www.semide.net/countries/fol749974/country154256 |
Geographical coverage | Morocco |
News date | 28/08/2009 |
Working language(s) | ENGLISH |