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Good practice Imported

Marrakech Treated-Wastewater Reuse — Tertiary Effluent for Golf Course & Palm Grove Irrigation (Morocco)

Morocco · Marrakech · See the Morocco profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 89% 27/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Since 2012, Marrakech utility RADEEMA has piped treated wastewater to golf resorts and the historic palm grove, producing 33 million m3/year of reclaimed water - though only 8 of 18 planned courses use it, due to clogging and salinity problems.

33 million m³/year
Treated wastewater reused (as of the World Bank case study)
24,000 m³/day
Target treatment capacity (since 2012)
8 of 18 golf courses
Golf courses using reclaimed water (of 18 planned) (as of the peer-reviewed assessment)
80 % of requested volume
Minimum billed volume regardless of actual consumption (ongoing)
Marrakech Treated-Wastewater Reuse — Tertiary Effluent for Golf Course & Palm Grove Irrigation (Morocco)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
RADEEMA (Régie Autonome de Distribution d'Eau et d'Electricité de Marrakech) / ONEE
Period
2012-present
Keywords
water utilities, tourism, agriculture, landscaping

Context

Marrakech's historic Palmeraie and its growing golf-tourism sector compete for scarce water in a semi-arid region where the city was also losing close to 40% of its supply to network leaks. To ease pressure on groundwater and the Oued Tensift, the national utility ONEE, the local utility RADEEMA, the Moroccan government, the regional governor and golf-resort developers agreed a joint wastewater treatment and reuse scheme.

Activities

A tertiary treatment plant and dedicated transmission network to the resorts became operational in 2012, built with a target capacity of about 24,000 m³/day for up to 18 golf courses and city landscaping. Resorts are billed for at least 80% of the volume they originally requested regardless of actual consumption, a deliberate design to make reclaimed water the cheaper option relative to groundwater abstraction.

Results

The plant now produces roughly 33 million m³/year of treated effluent, used to irrigate the palm grove and connected golf courses. Adoption has been partial: a peer-reviewed assessment of the scheme found only about 8 of the 18 golf courses actually use the reclaimed water, with managers citing recurring clogging of drip and sprinkler systems, elevated salinity, and uneven turf growth as reasons for reverting to other sources.

Conclusions

The World Bank's Water Scarce Cities Initiative has documented Marrakech's scheme as a case study in matching non-potable reuse to urban water scarcity, while also noting the technical adoption barriers that limit how much of the built capacity is actually used.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — A dedicated tertiary treatment plant plus transmission network was built to a 24,000 m³/day target capacity, operational since 2012; a specific capital-cost figure is not given in the source.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — The plant and network became operational in 2012 and have run continuously since; the 8-of-18-courses adoption finding reflects the status as of the peer-reviewed ScienceDirect study.
Staffing & skills
ONEE (national utility), RADEEMA (local utility), Moroccan government and regional governor, Golf-resort developers

Conditions for success

  • A tariff design that makes reclaimed water cheaper than groundwater (billing at least 80% of the requested volume regardless of consumption)
  • A dedicated tertiary treatment plant and transmission network built specifically for the reuse scheme
  • Multi-stakeholder governance spanning national and local utilities, government and private resort developers

Common failure modes

  • Only 8 of 18 planned golf courses actually use the reclaimed water
  • Recurring clogging of drip and sprinkler irrigation systems
  • Elevated salinity and uneven turf growth causing some resorts to revert to other water sources
  • Built capacity remains underused because of unresolved technical adoption barriers

Where it fits

Governance type
national and local utility joint scheme with government and private developers
Scale
city-wide (Marrakech), 18 golf courses plus the historic palm grove
Income level
lower-middle-income (Morocco)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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