Presentation short abstract

Through the examination of the Agadir desalination plant, this paper explores contradictions between the implementation of large-scale desalination and the capacity of the State in securing demand for its desalinated water while ensuring the preservation of other water resources.

Presentation long abstract

In Morocco, seawater desalination has become a central strategy to increase water supply. In the midst of a prolonged drought - which has now lasted for more than eight years – the government has announced a flurry of large-scale desalination projects. The first one to be completed – in 2022- has been the Agadir plant along the Atlantic Ocean. In addition to supplying Agadir’s drinking water, the mega-plant is meant to provide irrigation water to the agricultural plain of Chtouka.

The new plant is presented as a way to enable the export-oriented irrigated agriculture of the plain while ensuring a sustainable use of water resources, mostly through the preservation of the Chtouka aquifer. However, agricultural producers appear to have different priorities. Some of them add the new water to the mix of water sources that they rely on, some others do not use it altogether despite having access to it. Indeed, the desalination of brackish underground water through individual units is cheaper, more reliable, and free from state control.

This paper questions the widespread assumption in the literature, both technical and critical, that demand for desalinated water can be easily secured. Rather, we explore the difficulties faced by the State in securing demand for its desalinated water; and the strategies deployed by different state agencies at different scales to attempt to secure it. Our analysis provides broader insights into the evolution of state-business relations at a time of ecological crisis.