Water is life. It is therefore essential to make good use of it and manage it well. It is with this objective that the Sakia El Hamra-Oued Eddahab Hydraulic Basin Agency has set up a five-year plan for the period 2010-2015.

This action plan of the Agency will allow the implementation, at the local level of the Sakia El Hamra-Oued Eddahab hydraulic basin, of the national strategy for the water sector.

Through this plan, the Agency aims to contribute effectively to creating the adequate framework for a good partnership between the Basin Agency, local authorities, and the various partners within the framework of the revitalisation of partnership agreements between the government and the regions of the Kingdom. These agreements, the objective of which is the rationalisation of water use and the involvement of all actors, will have the effect of protecting and valorising water resources, preventing and fighting against the risks of pollution, as well as developing scientific research, awareness, and education.

As a result, the action plan will eventually ensure a coherent and flexible planning of water use and an optimal mobilisation of water resources, taking into account the guidelines of the national strategy for the water sector in Morocco.

It also aims to set up administrative and technical tools for the management of water resources and the public hydraulic domain in order to allow the valorisation and profitability of investments, while taking into account the economic and social interests of the populations by safeguarding their rights to water, already acquired, and the protection and conservation of the public hydraulic domain.

Let us recall that since their return to the motherland in 1976, the Southern provinces have experienced considerable development in all fields, particularly in terms of hydraulic infrastructure, and this despite several natural constraints: absence of surface water, low potential of groundwater tables, and high cost induced by their mobilisation.

In the absence of surface water, the Southern provinces have benefited from an important programme of research and mobilisation of groundwater resources (mainly deep lower Cretaceous aquifer) intended primarily for the supply of drinking water to the main towns.

This programme was followed by the realisation of infrastructure for the exploitation, treatment, and distribution of water. For some towns, recourse to seawater desalination or the demineralisation of brackish water has also become necessary over the last decade.