In light of the Moroccan authorities’ announcement that the country would enter a state of water emergency and their call for not wasting water, a publication appeared on Moroccan pages and accounts on social networking sites claiming that the local authorities in the city of Casablanca decided to cut off the water daily from midnight until morning as part of other rationing measures. However, the Casablanca municipality denied the authenticity of these publications.
And the leaflets attached to the phrase “urgent” stated that the Casablanca city council decided to “cut off the water from eleven o’clock at night until eight in the morning,” halve the supply of water to homes, and “freeze all professions and activities that depend on drinking water.”
The appearance of this publication comes as Morocco suffers from the worst drought in nearly forty years and raises fears of a water crisis, due to climate change, and in light of the delay in the completion of projects that aspire to better management of water resources.
Months ago, the authorities launched a real-time program of regarding one billion euros to help farmers cope with the effects of drought, and called on citizens to be prepared to deal with this reality, according to AFP journalists in Rabat.
In the past weeks, the Ministry of Water warned once morest “wasteful” use of water, declaring the country’s entry into a “water emergency”, according to local media.
The water scarcity threatens the city of Casablanca, the economic capital and the largest city in Morocco, which is expected to witness a deficit in securing the drinking water needs of its population in 2025.
The truth of decisions
However, the decisions attributed to the Casablanca Council in this regard, including daily water cuts, are incorrect, according to the local authorities.
The deputy head of the Casablanca municipal council, Moulay Avilal, said in an interview on Channel Two’s newscast that what was stated in these publications “is not true, it is all false, and we did not know the source of these lies.”
Afilal acknowledged the existence of a water crisis, but denied cutting off the city’s water, saying that its water supply will depend on the dams that supply the city of Rabat.