The Head of Government chairs signing ceremony of memorandum of understanding and partnership agreements between the public and private sectors to establish a seawater desalination plant and wind farm in Dakhla
The Head of Government, Mr. Aziz Akhannouch, chaired, on Wednesday, June 22, 2022 in Rabat, the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding between Mr. Mohamed Sadiki, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests, the Director General of the National Office of Electricity and Potable Water, and the Director General of DAWEC, to provide irrigation water on an area of 5,000 hectares, as well as drinking water for the city of Dakhla and neighboring areas, Bir Anzaran and the new Atlantic port of Dakhla through the construction of a new seawater desalination plant. Access to the national electricity transmission network for the desalination plant, and an agreement to connect to the public electrical network for the wind farm in the desalination plant project in Dakhla.
This signing comes in line with the expected launch of the desalination project in the region and falls within the framework of the new model of economic and social development of the southern provinces launched by His Majesty King Mohammed VI in 2015, as well as enhancing the participation of the private sector in infrastructure development.
In the same context, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests, within the framework of Law 86-12 on public-private partnership contracts, decided to implement two agreements:
A public-private partnership agreement for the co-financing, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of a seawater desalination unit that will cover a new irrigation perimeter of 5,000 hectares in the Dakhla region, as well as a wind farm, to be developed within the framework of Law 13-09 on renewable energies, which aims to meet the desalination unit's electrical energy needs.
A public-private partnership for the co-financing, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of an irrigation network covering a new area of up to 5,000 hectares in the Dakhla region.
This ambitious project, which was initially aimed at irrigating 5,000 hectares of early vegetables, has been redesigned to take into account the requirements expressed by the National Office of Electricity and Potable Water (ONEE) in order to support the development of the region by providing drinking water to the city of Dakhla and its surroundings, the Anzaran well and the new Atlantic port of Dakhla. Thus, the production capacity of desalinated water will be increased to 37 million cubic meters per year. The cost of completing the infrastructure is estimated at about 2 billion Dirhams.
All the necessary conditions have been met for the PPP agreements to enter into force, and construction work is expected to start soon. The total duration of the desalination plant and wind farm is 30 months, while the irrigation system has a duration of 24 months, and the operation is 20 years.
