With the Kingdom experiencing its worst drought in 30 years, there are increasing calls to rationalize water consumption and not to waste it. To cope with a hotter and drier summer than usual, with successive heat waves that have caused fires in different provinces, the government and municipalities have had to reduce the flow of drinking water and ban its use for gardening, car washing and street cleaning, as well as other measures.
However, environmental movements believe that the above measures are insufficient to address the worst drought to hit the kingdom in the last three decades, with water reserves at only 28% of their capacity.
The “Morocco Environment 2050” movement has called for a radical change in Morocco’s agricultural policy and an immediate halt to the cultivation and export of watermelons and avocados. In a post on its official Facebook page, the movement said that Morocco is exporting its most precious natural resource, groundwater, abroad. In the same sense, the movement pointed out that one kilogram of watermelon planted in the desert consumes 45 liters of water if distillation technology is used, which means that a watermelon weighing 10 kilograms can consume 450 liters of fresh water.
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