Assahafa.com
Morocco’s Minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka, held talks on Friday in Rabat with Mali’s Minister of Energy and Water, Tiemoko Traoré, focusing on ways to strengthen bilateral relations in managing water-related challenges and benefiting from Morocco’s experience in this field.
The two sides discussed areas of common interest, notably training and capacity-building for Malian officials in Moroccan institutes, supporting the Republic of Mali in the field of meteorology — including its adherence to the World Meteorological Organization — as well as the possibility of benefiting from artificial cloud-seeding programs.
On this occasion, Baraka reviewed the main pillars of Morocco’s national water policy, in line with the High Royal Guidelines, highlighting the structural components of this policy.
These include continuing the National Dam Program, implementing “water highways,” mobilizing non-conventional water resources through seawater desalination and the reuse of treated wastewater, and deploying mobile brackish-water treatment stations for rural areas.
He also referred to water-saving programs, particularly in the agricultural sector, the digitalization of the sector, and the establishment of groundwater management contracts. In addition, he discussed the integrated management of water resources at the basin level through Hydraulic Basin Agencies, considered the main governance tool in the water sector, within the framework of a strategic plan extending to 2050.
For his part, Traoré praised the quality of Moroccan expertise in water-resource management, emphasizing the relevance of the solutions presented in addressing an issue of strategic and vital importance for the Republic of Mali.
In a similar statement, he expressed his country’s strong interest in the Moroccan model, particularly regarding the early warning system for protection against natural disasters such as floods, real-time water-quality monitoring, mobile water-treatment stations, rainwater harvesting, water policing, and the strengthening of capacities for Malian officials and managers in the field of water-resource management.
He further highlighted the brotherly spirit that marked the meeting, which made it possible to examine issues of common interest in order to address the current and urgent challenges facing the two brotherly peoples, as well as to develop a medium- and long-term strategic vision so that access to water does not remain a luxury and to ensure the sustainability of infrastructure and equipment related to water security.
The two parties agreed to develop a new framework for bilateral cooperation in the water sector covering the various areas discussed, organize a Moroccan technical mission to the Republic of Mali, and arrange a working visit by a Malian delegation to the Kingdom of Morocco, with the aim of laying the foundations for a sustainable partnership serving the water security of both countries.
This meeting, which forms part of the fraternal and historic relations linking the Kingdom of Morocco and the sister Republic of Mali, also served as an opportunity to reaffirm Morocco’s active solidarity with the Malian people in facing the water challenges affecting the region.
It also aimed to propose structured support for Mali’s water program through a new cooperation agreement accompanied by an operational program and clearly defined monitoring indicators, according to the Ministry of Equipment and Water.
Source: map
