An ambitious plan is currently launched at the level of the hydraulic basin to ensure better management of water resources.

This action plan of the Sakia El Hamra and Oued Eddahab Hydraulic Basin Agency for the 2010-2015 period will allow the implementation of the national strategy for the water sector at the level of the Sakia El Hamra and Oued Eddahab hydraulic basin.

Thus, this action plan aims to contribute effectively to creating the adequate framework for a good partnership between the Basin Agency, local authorities and the various partners through the revitalisation of partnership agreements between the government and the regions of the Kingdom. These agreements, which aim at the rationalisation of water use and the involvement of all actors, have as objectives the protection and valorisation of water resources, the prevention and fight against risks, depollution, the development of scientific research and awareness-raising and education.

In this regard, the action plan will ensure in the long term a coherent and flexible planning of water use and an optimal mobilisation of water resources, taking into account the orientations of the national strategy for the water sector in Morocco.

This plan also aims at the implementation of administrative and technical tools for the management of water resources and the public hydraulic domain to allow the valorisation and profitability of investments, by taking into consideration 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, notably in terms of hydraulic infrastructure, despite several natural constraints: absence of surface water, low potential in groundwater and the importance of the price of their mobilisation.

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

This programme was relayed by the realisation of exploitation, treatment and water distribution infrastructures. The recourse to seawater desalination or the demineralisation of brackish water has also become necessary for certain cities during the last decade.