Between September 1, 2022 and February 13, the Kingdom has experienced significant rainfall with a national average of 75.9 mm instead of 38.8 mm during the same period a year ago, an improvement of 95.6%, said Baraka who was the guest of MAP Forum, held under the theme "Water stress: measures taken and future prospects".

During the same period, the area covered by snow has reached 5,720 km2 against 4,480 km2 during the previous year, an increase of 30%, he said.

Regarding water resources, they are now 2.15 billion m3, an increase of 192% compared to dam reservoirs during the same period last year.

This significant improvement in water resources has been reflected in the dams with 5.14 billion m3, a filling rate of 31.8% against 33.4% during the same period last year.

He also said that rainfall has recorded a sharp decline between 2013 and 2018, noting that 2022 was the hottest year since 1981 as well as the drought wave was the largest during the same year since 1945.

Baraka noted that the natural water resources of the Kingdom are around 22 billion m3, including 18 billion m3 of surface water and 4 billion m3 of groundwater, adding that water resources have fallen in recent years.

The scarcity of rainfall during the previous agricultural season has had negative effects, including overexploitation of groundwater for irrigation and drinking water with a record decline between -3 and -6.85 m3, said the minister.

Despite the decline in dam reservoirs, drinking water needs have been met through the increased use of groundwater, the significant reduction in allocations for irrigation, in addition to the desalination of seawater especially in Agadir (15 million m3 since February 2022), he noted.