Market brief
Morocco
The authorities that procure water infrastructure in Morocco, how the deals are put together, and what is in the pipeline.
Reference profile for MoroccoOverview
Morocco’s partnership deals in water are mainly large seawater desalination plants. ONEE, the national utility, signs the bulk and desalination offtake, at times jointly with the Ministry of Agriculture, while the Ministry of Equipment and Water commissions dams and transfers.1 2 3 The reference deal is Casablanca, awarded in November 2023 to an Acciona consortium on a thirty-year design-finance-build-operate basis;1 Cox secured the Agadir expansion as a concession in July 2025.4 The register tracks 27 schemes with US$ 2.8 bn of disclosed value, US$ 1.6 bn of it in projects not yet operating.5 The procurement decree can adjust the offer of a bidder not established in Morocco by 15%, unless members established there hold at least 30% of the consortium.3 Tariffs are set by ministerial order, with no independent regulator,6 and city distribution is passing to new regional companies, a new counterparty for network contracts.7 8 9
Market snapshot
The commercial picture in Morocco: the scale of the economy and the water sector, the investment climate, and where the near-term activity is concentrated.
Political stability
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators score, 0–100 (absolute scale), 2025. Political stability; higher is more stable.10
Investment climate
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators score, 0–100 (absolute scale), 2025. Regulatory quality for private investment; higher is better.10
Key institutions
- Ministry of Equipment & WaterMinistry
- ONEEUtility
- Regional multiservice companies (SRMs), with Redal (Rabat) and Amendis (Tangier) in their delegated areasUtility
Financing & PPP
- PPP frameworkActive (desalination & irrigation PPPs)
- Tracked projectsUS$ 2.8 bn disclosed value in our projects register, of which US$ 1.6 bn pipeline (not yet operating)
- Active fundersWorld Bank, AfDB, AFD, EIB, EBRD
- Climate adaptation planSubmitted to UNFCCC (January 2024; PNSA adopted January 2022)
Opportunities
- 01Large seawater desalination (Casablanca, Agadir, Dakhla)
- 02Renewable-powered desalination for agriculture
- 03Drip-irrigation conversion at scale
- 04Wastewater reuse for cities & golf/tourism
Key challenges
- 01Multi-year drought (2018–2025) and volatile dam storage
- 02High agricultural water use (citrus and other irrigated cash crops)
- 03Groundwater over-abstraction
- 04Uneven north–south distribution
Sources and notes
Sources: Water use by sector and total water withdrawal: FAO AQUASTAT, estimate for 2023, FAO AQUASTAT Dissemination System, retrieved 20 October 2026. AQUASTAT’s separate series for total freshwater withdrawal (6,976 million m³ in 2023) is a different measure and is not used here. Population and GDP: World Bank WDI, latest year (shown on each tile). Other figures: FAO AQUASTAT / national reports, latest available, approximate. Governance indicators: World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (2025).
Contracting authorities
The bodies that commission, regulate and operate water infrastructure in Morocco. Ministries set policy; ONEE, the national utility, signs the bulk and desalination offtake;1 distributors run the networks; and in Morocco the government sets tariffs by ministerial order, with no independent water regulator.6
- Ministry of Equipment & WaterMinistry
- ONEE – Water BranchUtility
- Regional multiservice companies (SRMs)Utility
- Hydraulic Basin Agencies (ABH, ×10)Basin & resources authority
- Regional Agricultural Development Offices (ORMVA)Irrigation & drainage
How deals are structured
The framework in Morocco is Active (desalination & irrigation PPPs), the schemes we track carry US$ 2.8 bn of disclosed value, US$ 1.6 bn of it in projects not yet operating, and the funders active in the sector include World Bank, AfDB, AFD, EIB, EBRD.
Delivery splits by asset class across the region: dams and trunk conveyance are mostly engineering contracts carried by sovereign or development-bank finance; bulk supply increasingly uses build-operate-transfer concessions against a long-term offtake; and distribution work is let as performance-based contracts paid against measured leakage reduction. The Finance & Economics hub sets out each model and where it has been used.
The projects register bears this out. Of the 27 tracked schemes in Morocco, 4 name a concession or independent-producer structure in the finance note; the rest record only where the money came from, which is not the same as saying they were not concessions.
How to bid
Morocco publishes its procurement rules in full, and three articles of the 2023 decree decide most bids. Under Article 147, a 15% adjustment is applied to the financial offer of a bidder not established in Morocco, in the cases the decree sets against the reference price, and the rate must appear in the consultation regulations; it does not apply to a consortium in which members established in Morocco hold at least 30%.3
| Procuring body | ONEE’s water branch, sometimes jointly with the Ministry of Agriculture, for bulk supply and desalination partnerships; the Ministry of Equipment and Water for dams and transfers; other state and local works under the public procurement decree.1 2 3 |
|---|---|
| National preference | Article 147: a 15% adjustment of the financial offer against bidders not established in Morocco, subject to ratified international commitments.3 |
| Industrial offset | Article 146 permits a compensation requirement: direct investment, technology or skills transfer, training, local products, industrial integration, maintenance and after-sales, with no payment made for it.3 |
| Unsolicited proposals | Article 13: anyone may propose a project the buyer had not identified. The buyer evaluates, then tenders a dossier built on it, and the originator bids with a bonus of 5% to 10% of the overall score.3 |
| Currency | A bidder not installed in Morocco may price in a convertible currency, converted at the central bank rate of the first working day of the week before opening.3 |
| Challenge | Article 163: complaint to the contracting authority, which must respond within five days; if the bidder is not satisfied, escalation to the competent minister, the Interior Minister or delegate, or the president of the deliberative body, who must order a suspension of up to ten days where the complaint is well founded and the bidder risks harm. Article 164: direct recourse to the National Public Procurement Commission, which extends the standstill by 15 days for a complaint about the rejection of the bidder’s own offer.3 |
| Counterparty change | The regional multi-service company took over distribution in Casablanca-Settat on 1 October 2024, and the companies started in Rabat-Salé-Kénitra on 1 June 2025 and Tangier-Tétouan-Al Hoceima on 1 September 2025. Redal and Amendis still operate their delegated areas, with contracts projected to expire at the end of 2028 and 2027 respectively; the regional companies handle investment in those areas. A distribution, metering or loss-reduction contract now has a new counterparty.7 8 9 11 |
The reference transactions are Casablanca, awarded on 17 November 2023 to Acciona with Afriquia Gaz and Green of Africa on a thirty-year design-finance-build-operate basis, three years of construction and twenty-seven of operation, for 548,000 cubic metres a day extensible to 822,000;1 and the Agadir expansion, a concession secured by Cox on 29 July 2025, adding 125,000 cubic metres a day, with total planned investment of more than €250 million between 2025 and 2027 for the expansion and a wind facility of over 150 MW due in 2027.4
Regulatory intelligence
| Regulation | Status | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water Law 36-15 | In force | 2016 | Basin management, licensing, reuse and desalination framework. |
| PNAEPI 2020–2027 | Active | 2020 | National emergency programme: dams, desal, transfers, reuse. |
| Aquifer contracts (contrats de nappe) | Expanding | — | Negotiated abstraction limits basin by basin. |
| PPP law (amended) | In force | 2020 | Framework for desalination and irrigation PPPs. |
| Law 83-21 on regional multiservice companies | In force | 2023 | Regional companies take over distribution progressively: Casablanca-Settat on 1 October 2024, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra on 1 June 2025 and Tangier-Tétouan-Al Hoceima on 1 September 2025; Redal and Amendis retain their delegated areas, with contracts projected to expire at the end of 2028 and 2027 respectively.7 8 9 11 |
Primary references: the Ministry of Equipment & Water and the river-basin agencies (ABH).
Projects
Tracked schemes in Morocco, largest first. Each has its own page with the parties, the finance and a dated history.
Sources and notes
Interactive map: switch views, hover or focus a marker, and use the +/− controls (or double-click, then drag) to zoom and pan. Geometry and data from the MENA Water Review library.
27 tracked in total. The full set, filterable, is in the major projects register.
Track record
Contracts on record in Morocco, from the awards log and the major projects register, dated by commissioning where known.
Disclosed value by year
US$ bn of tracked awards in Morocco carrying a published value
2 further awards in this sector have no value recorded in our register and are not in the chart.
| Year | Project | Winning firms | US$ m |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Casablanca SWRO | Acciona, Afriquia Gaz, Green of Africa developer | 695 |
| 2023 on line | Sebou–Bouregreg Water Highway | SGTM, SNCE, STAM contractor | 591 |
| 2022 on line | Agadir Desalination & Irrigation | Abengoa, InfraMaroc developer | 346 |
| 2019 | Dakhla Wind-Powered Desalination | Nareva, ENGIE developer | 278 |
| 2014 on line | Fès Wastewater Plant | Golden State, Waterleau, Sotradema, Eusebios, Mesquita contractor | 93 |
| 2011 on line | Marrakech Wastewater Plant | Waterleau contractor | n/a |
| 2009 on line | El Guerdane Irrigation Concession | Omnium Nord-Africain, Fond Igrane, Infrastructure Development and Management developer | n/a |
Sources and notes
Years without a label are award years from the curated log; rows marked on line are dated by commissioning, from the projects register. Register rows without a commissioning date show their stage instead: awarded, with the year recorded, or under construction or operating, with no year. 7 rows in total for Morocco.
Repeat winners
- Waterleau2 tracked awards, as contractor
Pipeline & tenders
Structured procurements and live tenders in Morocco, drawn from the same review that maintains the pipeline tracker.
Pipeline & awards
Tenders
Prices
What households pay
| Household tariff (US$/m³) | Cost of supply (US$/m³) | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.24 – 1.10 | $2.34 (Laâyoune desalinated water) | 2014 / 2023 | Arrêté 2682.14 of 21 July 2014, BO 6275 bis, in force 1 August 2014 (tariff); Cour des comptes 2024–2025 annual report, as reported (cost)6 12 |
The ONEE schedule runs MAD 2.37/m³ for the first 6 m³ a month to MAD 11.03 above 35 m³, excluding tax, with a fixed charge of MAD 6 a month. Above 12 m³ ONEE bills selectively: the rate of the block reached applies to the whole month's consumption, so the marginal price is far higher than the blocks suggest. Households in the large cities are billed by their regional multi-service company, except in areas still covered by delegated contracts, including Rabat-Salé, served by Redal, and Tangier-Tétouan, served by Amendis. The cost is the Court of Accounts' figure for producing and distributing desalinated water in Laâyoune in 2023, MAD 23.41/m³, against an average selling price of MAD 5.06; it is not a national cost of supply.
Residential tariffs, and the cost of supply where a utility publishes it, are kept in one place for the whole region so the comparison holds: a tariff means little without the cost it is measured against.
Watch list
What has actually moved in Morocco, dated, from the monthly briefings. Each item names the edition it came from.
- September 2026Dams held 65.51% on 1 October against 32.68% a year earlier; the largest September tender was 262.74 million dirhams for the Ribat El Kheir dam.From the October 2026 briefing
The full editions are in the briefing archive.
Sources
12 references
Project, pipeline and tender records are compiled from procurer announcements, lender disclosures and trade reporting; each project page carries its own source and the date it was last checked. Institutions are from the decision-maker directory. Economic and water indicators are cited on the reference profile.
- Le360, award of the Casablanca desalination contract, 17 November 2023.
- Global Infrastructure Hub, case study: Agadir mutualised desalination plant, 2019, with ONEE and the Ministry of Agriculture as joint public owners.
- Décret n° 2-22-431 of 8 March 2023 on public procurement (Morocco), Bulletin Officiel 7184 of 6 April 2023.
- Cox, concession for 125,000 m³/day at the Agadir plant, 29 July 2025.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
- ONEE, drinking-water tariffs for household customers, applying ministerial arrêté 2682.14 of 21 July 2014 (BO 6275 bis) from 1 August 2014.
- Médias24, SRM Casablanca-Settat enters service, 30 September 2024 (archived).
- Médias24, SRM Rabat-Salé-Kénitra operational, Redal keeps its area until 2028, 5 June 2025.
- EcoActu, official launch of SRM Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima, 2025.
- Kaufmann & Kraay, Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank), 2025 update: political-stability and regulatory-quality scores, 0–100, shown in the market snapshot. worldbank.org/wgi.
- Ministry of Economy and Finance, report on public establishments and enterprises, 2025, projecting the end of the Amendis contract at end-2027 and Redal at end-2028.
- Bladi.net, report on the Cour des comptes 2024–2025 findings on the cost of desalinated water, 2 February 2026.
Numbered references are linked from the superscript markers in the text. Figures without a marker come from the sources above as compiled in the site methodology.
Sources and notes
Firms appearing on two or more tracked awards in Morocco. For a PPP, BOT, BOO or independent water, power or sewage project the winner counted is the developer or sponsor consortium; for an EPC or works contract it is the contractor. Each consortium member is counted on its own. EPC contractors working for a developer, subcontractors and equipment suppliers are not counted, and a PPP whose developer is not recorded counts for no firm.