WATER POLICY AND URBANIZATION IN MOROCCO: THE RECENT CHANGES IN THE URBAN WATER SPACE IN A COUNTRY IN SOUTH MEDITERRANEAN

El Mahdad  El Hassane, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University Ibn Zuhr, Agadir, Morocco

Abstract

As for the rest of the Mediterranean countries, water has played a factor in the emergence and development of the urban landscape of Morocco. To support the water’s needs of different users, to eliminate wastewater effluents or to mitigate the negative impacts of floods, cities represented by Imperial Fez, Marrakech and Rabat... have succeeded through their long history in building ingenious urban water systems.
During the colonial period and the early years of independence, the greatest aim of the Moroccan development was agriculture. Almost all water surface was mobilized to "the politics of large dams". The supply of urban populations and their activities in water, wastewater loading and protection of cities against floods ... were not a priority, only big cities and mostly affluent neighborhoods benefit from running water.
Over time, acceleration rates, of growth and urbanization, the growth of urban centers and frequency of droughts and all factors will reveal the extent of the shortfall to ensure an urban environment and an adequate level of human development over the national territory. Thus the National Office of Drinking Water was created in 1972 to ensure the planning, the production, distribution and control of the quality of drinking water supplied despite of the difficulties. This organization managed over time to form the centerpiece of the landscape hydraulic Moroccan urban, due to the help of other public, private and associative organizations. Currently, the maintenance of gains made in access to safe drinking water requires the passage to an urban water policy more coherent. Water resources are increasingly scarce in a context characterized by climate changes, drought frequency, keeping the pressure population and the proliferation of poverty.
In this communication, we discuss the characterization of the drinking water in Moroccan cities, by treating its internal structure management and its function production and consumption, and institutional changes.