Cultivated areas across the kingdom are expected to shrink to 2.5 million hectares in 2024 compared with 3.7 million last year, according to official figures.

In 2023, 25 percent of desalinated water was allotted to agriculture, which consumes more than 80 percent of the country's water resources.

Against this backdrop, the authorities in Safi were in a "race against time" to build a regular desalination plant which now serves all of its 400,000 residents, Bahssou said.

The plant is set to be expanded to also provide water by 2026 for Marrakesh and its 1.4 million residents, some 150 km east of Safi, Bahssou said.

Xinhua