Abdelouafi Laftit was quick to react. A few days after Nizar Baraka’s warning about the water shortage and the decline in the filling rate of dams, the Minister of the Interior sent a circular to the walis and governors. The purpose of this letter is to manage water stress. Indeed, the succession of droughts over the last five years has had a significant impact on water reserves, seriously undermining the capacity to supply drinking and irrigation water.
Once again this year, the scarcity of rainfall has resulted in a critical rate of filling of dams and a drying up of groundwater. This heralds a major water crisis, calling for action to rationalize the use of resources. The Ministry of the Interior has not left much room for maneuver to the walis and governors. The circular lists a series of firm measures which walis and governors are responsible for implementing. Firstly, the circular calls for meetings to be held during the first week of each month with the water utilities to draw up and provide regular updates on water consumption per neighborhood. The aim is to identify the most «water-guzzling»areas.
On the basis of this mapping, awareness-raising actions are to be launched, with the help of local associations. The aim is to draw the population’s attention to the importance of rationalizing water consumption. It will also be imperative to ration the flow of water destined for these neighborhoods, with pressure modulation or cut-offs during certain time slots.
The fight against the loss of water resources will be carried out through the search for leaks in the pipes of production and distribution operators. To this end, operators are asked to produce monthly reports on the quantities presumed to have been lost, and the plugging operations carried out or planned. The system to be put in place also provides for the repression of cases of fraud in the exploitation of water resources, such as anarchic connections, tapping into pipes and water mains, etc. In this respect, it should be emphasized that the non-payment by certain users of water consumption charges often promotes the misuse of this natural resource, notes the circular.
The document issued by the Minister of the Interior also stresses the absolute ban on the use of water for certain activities, such as watering green spaces or cleaning public roads and squares. The ban extends to filling public and private swimming pools more than once a year. For water-consuming crops, the decision will be made in consultation with the Department of Agriculture.
Mohamed CHAOUI
