HM the King inaugurates a wastewater treatment and re-use project in Marrakech

PERSISMA, Marrakech – HM King Mohammed VI inaugurated, on Thursday in Marrakech, a wastewater treatment and re-use project in the city, carried out for a total cost of 1.23 billion dirhams.

– The project is the first of its kind in Morocco and Africa

– The project will benefit a population of over 1.3 million.

– The plant will annually treat 33 cubic meters of alternative water.

The Monarch visited the different facilities of the new project that will contribute to the urban development of Marrakech by treating the whole of the city’s waste water (120,000 cubic meters per day), eliminating olfactory elements, reducing greenhouse gas emission and preserving water resources.

Under this leading project at national and continental levels, a purifying plant will be set up on an area spanning over 17 hectares with a treatment capacity of 1,300,000 people’s production of waste water.

The project also provides for the creation of a network for the re-use of purified water consisting of five pumping stations and 80 kilometres of pipes.

In line with international norms and standards, the new purifying plant uses state-of-the-art technologies and adopts the “activated sludge” purification procedure followed by filtration and fumigation with ultraviolet and chlorine.

The plant will produce 33 million of cubic metres of alternative water annually, which represents over half of the water consumed by the city’s population. This water will be used in irrigating green spaces notably in 19 golf courses which will receive 23 million cubic meters of water annually.

The plant is equipped with a laboratory and sludge digestion units. The digested sludge will produce 20,000 normal cubic metres daily of biogas which will generate 30,000 kilowatt-hour daily, that is 45% of the energy needs of the plant.

The use of biogas in the plant will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by preventing the release of 60,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.

– The project is the first of its kind in Morocco and Africa