National Program of Sanitation and Wastewater Treatment in Morocco: Objectives, Achievements and Challenges

Abstract

In 2005, Morocco launched the National Program of Sanitation and Wastewater treatment to manage the delay in wastewater treatment and the challenges of water resources scarcity. This program aims to improve health conditions of 10 million inhabitants in 330 Moroccan cities and towns by the year 2020, at an estimated cost of 43 MD DH. The ambitious objective of this program is to achieve a treatment rate of 50% in 2016 and 60% in 2020, and increase the collection rate to 75% and 80% by 2016 and 2020, respectively. The current sanitation situation shows a considerable increase in connection rate to public sewage from 70% in 2007 to 73% in 2012. At the end of 2014, around 50% of collected wastewater was treated by 84 WWTPs constructed to treat the effluents of 89 cities and towns. 60 other WWTPs are under construction and 48 new WWTPs are in study phases. Finally, this paper presents the constraints and challenges that the program faces.