Morocco and the serious question of water exports.

Morocco is not a water rich country but one with a negative water footprint. The water footprint of a country is defined as the volume of water used for the production of the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the country. The internal water footprint is the volume of water used from domestic water resources; the external water footprint is the volume of water used in other countries to produce goods and services imported and consumed by the inhabitants of the country. A recent study shows that Morocco imports more water in virtual form (in the form of water-intensive agricultural commodities) than it exports, which makes Morocco dependent on water resources elsewhere in the world. The water footprint calculations show that Morocco depends for 14% on water resources outside its own borders.

Yet Morocco actually exports water to Great Britain, where the average household uses an astonishing amount of water - over 1000 gallons of water a day, making the country one of the biggest water importers in the world.

A study by the environment group WWF is the first attempt to discover the full scale of UK water consumption, and its water footprint. The study not only looks at water for drinking, cleaning and washing, but also at at hidden factors such as how much water is needed to grow food around the world and to make and transport goods. It concludes that only 38 per cent of the water used by the UK comes from its own resources, with much of the rest coming from countries such as Spain and Morocco, which face serious shortages.

The WWF identifies Spain, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Israel, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as some of the countries facing the worst droughts, yet they all still supply the UK with substantial exports of their water. The question of how long Morocco can afford to do this is an important one. According to the latest figures, annual water availability in Morocco is currently around 14bn cu metres, of which 1.8bn cu metres is designated for drinking water and industrial needs, with the remainder used for irrigation. Water storage capacity in dams is scheduled to be increased to 40bn cu metres by 2020 through an extensive dam-building programme, begun in the 1960s, that foresees the building of two dams a year.

Demand for water is expanding by an estimated 6% annually, and prices are likely to be raised in a bid to rationalise water use, particularly for agriculture. The government is spending US$4bn up to 2005 to secure safe supplies of drinking water throughout the country. Urban areas will receive two-thirds of the funds. Furthermore, the authorities have introduced a three-year programme to upgrade the irrigation system, with the aim of stabilising the annual cereals harvest.

And of great concern should be the the World Bank report on Morocco's water resources that has warned that the country could face a 30% drop in water availability per hectare of cultivated land unless improved water management techniques are introduced.


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