The coastal plant here, the first in a wave of megaprojects, is Morocco\u2019s bet that desalination can help preserve a way of life, including water-hungry activities like large-scale agriculture.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important lesson here \u2013 there is a solution to facing climate change,\u201d said Tarik Hamane, the chief executive of Morocco\u2019s state-run water utility.<\/p>\n
Rows of citrus trees lie uprooted near Sebt El Guerdane, Morocco. Drought-hit farmers in the region clear their land when they can no longer sustain citrus cultivation. Photo \/ Clea Rekhou, The Washington Post<\/p>\n
The idea of desalination has long been seductive, as it involves harnessing the biggest resource on the planet, the world\u2019s oceans. <\/p>\n
Recent cost reductions have only heightened an outlook, popular in tech circles, that the technology can help humans overcome the water shortages that are becoming more acute as the planet warms. <\/p>\n
Elon Musk said last year that desalination could \u201cturn any part of the world green \u2013 including the entire world\u201d.<\/p>\n
Critics say it is an imperfect lifeline. The process pollutes waters by discharging brine, an ultra-salty extract that is dumped back into the sea and can increase water temperatures. <\/p>\n
Desalination also requires significant energy and yields greenhouse gas emissions if powered by fossil fuels. <\/p>\n
The International Energy Agency says global energy demand for water desalination has nearly doubled since 2010 and is poised to double again by 2030. The rise in electricity demand is on par with the predicted increase stemming from data centres.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody loves the idea of a silver bullet,\u201d said Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Pacific Institute and a scientist who studies water resources. \u201cBut desalination has a lot of problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Washington Post analysis of global projects, based on data provided by industry tracker Global Water Intelligence, shows how desalination is spreading in new and increasingly water-scarce parts of the world. <\/p>\n
Among plants currently online, 65 of the 100 largest are in the Gulf region, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. <\/p>\n
The geographic balance swings with new projects, whose scale will exceed those already in existence. Of the 100 largest plants planned or in the works, 63 are outside the Gulf \u2013 often in nations that lack the same resources and development.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have no water, is the cost of desalination a high price to pay?\u201d said Shannon McCarthy, the executive director of the International Desalination and Reuse Association, an industry group. \u201cWater is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Algeria is planning nine of these large-scale plants, according to the data. <\/p>\n
Egypt has three in the pipeline. <\/p>\n
Iraq, facing the historic decline of its once-mighty river system, in July signed contracts to build one of the world\u2019s largest facilities. <\/p>\n
Jordan, one of the most water-stressed countries on Earth, is planning not only a mega-plant but also a 400km pipeline that would bring desalinated drinking water to its capital.<\/p>\n
Chouhaid Nasr is the director general of Veolia Morocco. The French company is building one of Africa\u2019s largest seawater desalination plants, near Rabat. Photo \/ Clea Rekhou, The Washington Post
Boxes of fresh tomatoes from Karam Green Agri\u2019s Lina Souss packing facility are ready for distribution. Photo \/ Clea Rekhou, The Washington Post<\/p>\n
And then there is Morocco, where water from rain and snowmelt has decreased steadily over the decades, and where some of the largest dams are at critically low levels. King Mohammed VI last year called on the country to \u201caccelerate\u201d its desalination plans.<\/p>\n
By 2031, Morocco will have four of the 10 largest facilities on Earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be very helpful to maintain life and also the agriculture sector,\u201d Morocco\u2019s Water Minister, Nizar Baraka, said in an interview. <\/p>\n
Two of the future plants will help supply water directly to farms. Others are intended solely to provide drinking water to cities and will increase the overall capacity \u2013 leaving more natural water sources for agriculture.<\/p>\n
Some of the country\u2019s most economically crucial farms have already directly benefitted since the 2022 inauguration of a plant near the city of Agadir. <\/p>\n
The facility reserves about 55% of its water for the drinking needs of 1.6 million people. The rest is dispatched through an intricate network of pipes towards the parched plain responsible for most of Morocco\u2019s vegetable exports.<\/p>\n
Eventually, the water reaches the hangar-size enclosures \u2013 some guarded by security \u2013 where trickles irrigate tomato plants nestled in plastic-lined beds of imported mulch.<\/p>\n
The tomatoes, once picked, then move on to packaging facilities like the one belonging to Karam Green Agri, one of Morocco\u2019s largest exporters. <\/p>\n
One recent afternoon, during a tour of the facility, manager Ali Ouramdan drew back the window shades of a conference room, giving an overhead view of the busy packaging floor. <\/p>\n
Tomatoes rattled down conveyor belts. Yellow-uniformed workers sorted them by size and colour. Forklifts hoisted pallets of packaged tomatoes marked with labels like Tesco or Lidl.<\/p>\n
Amid the drought, surrounded by a landscape of sand, Ouramdan said desalination had helped push Karam Green Agri\u2019s exports to their highest level yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cA record year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The bustling Lina Souss facility, where workers prepare tomatoes, mostly for international export. Photo \/ Clea Rekhou, The Washington Post<\/p>\n
Empty aquifers<\/p>\n
Morocco\u2019s desalination emphasis can\u2019t be explained by climate change alone. The water deficit also has been driven by human factors \u2013 particularly the Government\u2019s decisions about what crops to plant and at what scale to grow them. <\/p>\n
Europeans wanted fresh produce year-round, and Morocco had positioned itself to serve and profit from those appetites.<\/p>\n
Agriculture is the \u201creal elephant in the room\u201d, said Hakima El Haite, Morocco\u2019s former special envoy for climate change.<\/p>\n
Farms today account for roughly 85% of the country\u2019s water needs, but that hasn\u2019t always been the case. <\/p>\n
A century ago, farmers planted barley, wheat and oats for animals in small-scale plots, depending entirely on rainfall. Over time, Morocco ramped up its ambitions, launching a mid-20th-century dam-building spree to capture more rainfall and support larger-scale production.<\/p>\n
By the 1990s, experts were warning that Moroccan agricultural water needs were outpacing supply. Farmers were already digging wells and tapping aquifers \u2013 groundwater reserves that can buffer against drought.<\/p>\n
But rather than pulling back, Morocco kept going. In 2008, it unveiled a blueprint for turning itself into an export powerhouse.<\/p>\n
That strategy \u2013 called the Morocco Green Plan, led by an agriculture minister who is now Prime Minister \u2013 offered subsidies and encouraged the expansion of water-thirsty crops not native to Morocco. <\/p>\n
The strategy had an economic payoff, bringing wealth and an influx of jobs to rural areas. The Government also emphasised more efficient irrigation. But rather than saving water, farmers leveraged those gains to expand even further. And by the time the drought hit, the mismatch was dire.<\/p>\n
Morocco was growing watermelons in the desiccated inland area of Zagora.<\/p>\n
It had citrus groves where rainfall covered just a tiny fraction of the needs.<\/p>\n
It was exporting tomatoes from a region with near-empty aquifers.<\/p>\n
\u201cMorocco has done exactly the opposite\u201d of what it should have, said Mohamed Bazza, an independent expert and former water resources officer at the United Nations\u2019 Food and Agriculture Organisation.<\/p>\n
The parched landscape surrounding Rabat, Morocco. Fields have dried and riverbeds lie empty, the result of a prolonged lack of rain. Photo \/ Clea Rekhou, The Washington Post<\/p>\n
That\u2019s left Morocco facing the water equivalent of a budget deficit. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a predicament increasingly common worldwide, and the country is now scrambling to expand its supply to avoid what Bazza called a \u201ccatastrophe\u201d. Desalination is central to that effort. The Government is also working to reuse more water, cut down on leakage and transfer water from wetter regions to dry ones.<\/p>\n
With enough efficiency gains, agriculture \u201ccould be\u201d made sustainable, said Baraka.<\/p>\n
However, desalination, experts say, is not a cure-all \u2013 and it could never be deployed at a scale large enough for the country\u2019s total needs. <\/p>\n
Morocco\u2019s farms, Baraka said, require roughly 12 billion cubic metres of water per year. Meeting that demand would require the output of 35 of the world\u2019s largest desalination plants. <\/p>\n
And even then, desalinated water \u2013 costing roughly twice as much as groundwater pumped from wells \u2013 is too expensive and logistically complicated for many farmers.<\/p>\n
The businesses that can afford it are typically the biggest exporters growing the most lucrative crops. They also need the fortune of being close to a desalination plant.<\/p>\n
The upshot: some agribusinesses prosper, while other farms wither.<\/p>\n
Tomatoes move along conveyors at the Lina Souss packing facility. Photo \/ Clea Rekhou, The Washington Post<\/p>\n
In the agricultural heartland, known as the Souss-Massa region, that divide is already visible. <\/p>\n
The tomato fields run by large exporters have arranged to get hooked up to the network carrying desalinated water. The labyrinth of pipes stretches only about 40km inland. <\/p>\n
Farther away, vast citrus groves lie dying and abandoned. Agriculture experts say land is being sold off. Farms have laid off workers. On one recent afternoon, an excavator tore through a field of citrus stumps.<\/p>\n
To the extent there was any activity, it came from farmers who had given up on oranges or limes and switched to cactus.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd even to grow cactus, you have to be lucky,\u201d said Karim Aitsaid, a fruit seller in the inland town of Sebt El Guerdane. He was selling melons from another region.<\/p>\n
Eventually, the scale of agriculture will have to shrink, said El Haite, the former climate envoy.<\/p>\n
\u201cOtherwise,\u201d she said, \u201cdesalination risks becoming an expensive stopgap rather than a long-term solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Desalinated water, stored in a tank at the Agadir plant. Photo \/ Clea Rekhou, The Washington Post<\/p>\n
A desalination pioneer<\/p>\n
Even with their limitations, the mega-plants that will eventually rise along the Moroccan coastline \u2013 from Rabat to Casablanca to Nador \u2013 still represent a boost. <\/p>\n
Over the next five years, the share of Moroccans drinking desalinated water will rise to 60%, from 9% today. Some 30% of the new water will be earmarked for irrigation. <\/p>\n
King Mohammed VI has laid out the vision for Morocco as a desalination pioneer: developing its own domestic construction companies, training technicians. He has pledged to run everything on renewable energy.<\/p>\n
But for now, Morocco has just one large-scale plant in operation \u2013 the one feeding the tomato farms. It takes power from the coal-dependent grid.<\/p>\n
The desalination plant, run by the Spanish company Cox, sits at a precipice overlooking the Atlantic. <\/p>\n
Long intake tunnels reach into the depths, marked by barely visible buoys, pulling seawater toward shore. Then snaking, 1.8m-wide pipes deliver that water upward towards the plant and into a grey hangar-size building where it\u2019s transformed.<\/p>\n
Reverse osmosis has become the dominant desalination technology. Photo \/ Clea Rekhou, The Washington Post<\/p>\n
There, 4m-long white pipes are stacked horizontally towards the ceiling. The pipes contain tightly wound spirals of membrane, resembling golden gift wrap. The water enters one end of the pipe at high pressure. And then it exits, stripped of its impurities, while the salty waste is deposited from a different outlet.<\/p>\n
Experts say that advances in this process, known as reverse osmosis, are fundamental to the desalination boom. Until 20 years ago, countries had been relying on thermal methods, heating the seawater and capturing the condensed salt-free vapour. Improvements in membrane technology \u2013 making them thinner, more durable \u2013 turned reverse osmosis into the dominant technology.<\/p>\n
The cost of desalinating water fell tenfold over a generation, in some cases to 50 cents per cubic metre. That price decrease suddenly put desalination within reach for developing countries that believe they have little other choice.<\/p>\n
Even in the Cox plant, employees say they sense the urgency. They drive to work past the tomato enclosures. They have a map of the irrigation network that has sustained farms \u2013 and they\u2019ve heard pleas from farmers who live beyond it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis plant has tried to save the situation,\u201d said Jose Antonio Randeiro, the director of operations and maintenance. \u201cOtherwise this area was going to dry out.\u201d<\/p>\n
A technician fills a cup with clean water from a final tap at the Agadir plant. Photo \/ Clea Rekhou, The Washington Post<\/p>\n
Several workers led a tour one morning that followed the water on its chronological journey, starting at the intake pipes \u2013 where the air smelled of sea salt \u2013 and ending at mineral pools, where the smell of salt was gone. <\/p>\n
Then Manuel Hurtado, maintenance director at the plant, and technical director Miguel Angel Ugalde headed back outdoors to one final stop: a water analysis station.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we\u2019re going to taste the water,\u201d Hurtado said.<\/p>\n
He mentioned that earlier in the day, Cox finalised a long-awaited expansion of the plant. Its chief executive had flown in, signing an agreement with Morocco to boost capacity by 45%. The work also would involve the construction of a wind plant for energy needs. A news release described the move as further aiding \u201cone of the areas most affected by water stress\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday is really good news,\u201d Hurtado said.<\/p>\n
They walked over to a grid of outdoor pipes, a tap at one end.<\/p>\n
Ugalde passed around some paper cups, and Hurtado turned on the spigot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is water from the seas,\u201d he said. \u201cCheers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The coastal plant here, the first in a wave of megaprojects, is Morocco\u2019s bet that desalination can help…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[6689,95,23434,23438,23441,23435,23436,273,15124,71,23437,14236,23433,111,139,69,90,11590,147,23439,23432,202,223,61,23442,23440,376,1530],"class_list":["post-22552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-agriculture","tag-and","tag-bets","tag-counting","tag-crinkles","tag-desalination","tag-drought","tag-environment","tag-fight","tag-from","tag-grip","tag-held","tag-morocco","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-save","tag-science","tag-scorched","tag-seas","tag-seven","tag-the","tag-to","tag-underfoot","tag-vegetation","tag-water","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}