Resource information
This operation provides a $70m loan for
a project that would help participating farmers in the Oum
Er Rbia basin increase the productivity of their farming and
to promote more sustainable use of irrigation water to
overcome current and future water deficits. This would be
achieved by providing participating farmers with the level
of irrigation service necessary for high efficiency drip
irrigation. Scarcity and degradation of water resources have
reached alarming levels in Morocco. In addition, water
resources are unevenly distributed throughout the country
and rainfall is highly variable. Droughts are common. Ninety
percent of economically accessible surface resources are
already controlled by dams, leaving few options for
additional surface water storage. Population and economic
growth have increased demand even as supply has fallen. The
problems are particularly acute in the Oum Er Rbia basin.
However, on average over the past decade, the basin's
Large Scale Irrigation (LSI) schemes received only 60
percent of the water for which the system was designed.
Government of Morocco has been pursuing reforms to improve
water management and service delivery. The water allocation
system is the responsibility of the River Basin Agencies,
which were created to promote integrated and participatory
water resource management. This note is based on the Project
Appraisal Document (PAD). The project was declared effective
only in September 2010 so it is too early for any
implementation lessons to be collected.
