Paris hosts exhibition on water and Morocco
Morocco-France, Economics, 6/16/1999

Paris is hosting as of this Wednesday an exhibition on "Morocco, Water Spirit" to highlight Morocco's centuries-old know-how in water prospecting and preservation.

The exhibition, held part of "Le Temps du Maroc en France," the year-long festival on Morocco celebrated throughout France, will be dedicated today by Prince Moulay Rachid, the youngest son of King Hassan II, and French minister of culture and communication, Catherine Trautmann.

The exhibition highlights the topic of water in Morocco through the dimension of know-how as well as through the symbolic and cultural dimension.

Water, the source of all forms of life, has always played an important role in the economic and social activities of Morocco which always been keen on upgrading and protecting its water resources.

Since the early years of independence from France in 1956, Morocco, a country with a semi-arid weather, has realized the importance of devising an efficient water management policy to spare its growing populations the hazards of the severe drought that hits the country on a cyclic basis.

The first dam constructed in Morocco in the 20th century was built in 1929 on the Oum Rabii river to supply the then small town of Casablanca (now the largest city in Morocco and in North Africa) with drinking water.

The water management policy remained shy until 1966. In 38 years, only 15 dams with a global capacity of 2 billion cubic meters, were constructed.

In 1967, King Hassan II gave a new impetus to the dams construction policy, when he decided to build six dams, part of an ambitious program geared towards ensuring the irrigation of 1 million hectares by year 2000.

A national authority in charge of water affairs was set in the same year with the prime objective to implement the irrigation project and to reduce, at a later stage, Morocco's dependence on abroad in matters of energy products.

In addition to irrigating more than 1 million hectares, Morocco's water policy also seeks to produce over 800 million cubic meters annually of drinking and industrial water. During the past three decades, 43 to 77 % of public investments earmarked for agriculture were soaked by water-related projects.Paris is also hosting from June 13 through August 31 another exhibition on Morocco's modern architecture.

Previous Stories:
  Development projects would curb down emigration attempts   (6/16/1999)
  Economic show for Moroccan expatriates opens in France   (5/14/1999)
  France helps Morocco develop with loans worth 2.4 billion francs   (5/7/1999)

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