Publication: Water Scarcity in Morocco: Analysis of Key Water Challenges
Loading...
Date
2020-01
ISSN
Published
2020-01
Editor(s)
Abstract
Morocco is expected to be faced with a major water shortfall prompted by either expansion in demand for water or reduction in precipitation induced by climate change. This paper examines the economywide impacts of these factors for Morocco. It uses a computable general equilibrium model augmented with submodules that trace consumption of water by uses and land allocation across sectors including crops, livestock, and forestry. Results show that water scarcity and changes in crop yields induced by climate change could reduce the GDP of Morocco up to 6.7 billion US dollars per year at 2016 constant prices and eliminate many job opportunities, in particular in the rural areas of this country. Only a portion of these negative impacts can be removed with improvements in water use efficiency. The factors mentioned above will reduce productivity of Morocco’s cropland and have the potential to reduce irrigated areas. Due to these changes, production of crops and food products are expected to fall, with increases in crop prices by up to 14.3 percent, assuming other factors being equal. Investment in water use efficiency practices that save water, in particular in agricultural activities, and shifting toward more valuable and less water intensive crops can help to partially mitigate these adverse impacts.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Taheripour, Farzad; Tyner, Wallace E.; Haqiqi, Iman; Sajedinia, Ehsanreza. 2020. Water Scarcity in Morocco: Analysis of Key Water Challenges. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33306 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Water in the Balance(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-09-28)Innovations in water management and irrigated agriculture powered water-scarce Middle Eastern economies for millennia. However, as water becomes scarcer because of population growth and economic development, and even more erratic because of climate change, the region’s water security is coming under increasing threat. This report applies an economic model, the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) computable general equilibrium model, to assess the economic impacts of water scarcity for six Middle Eastern countries and also to examine how water-use efficiency improvements and trade can mitigate these impacts. A 20 percent reduction in water supply could decrease GDP by up to 10 percent, compared to 2016 levels. Furthermore, increased water scarcity could reduce labor demand by up to 12 percent and lead to significant land-use changes, including loss of beneficial hydrological services. The report emphasizes how the growing dependence on shared water resources reinforces the need to manage water across boundaries. The message is clear: unless new and transformative policies for sustainable, efficient and cooperative water management are promoted, water scarcity will negatively impact the region’s economic prospects and undermine its human and natural capital.Publication Applying Results-Based Financing in Water Investments(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-05)Given the broad array of issues and the complexity faced by the water sector as a whole (from irrigation to flood protection, to water conservation and hydropower), there is great demand for future exploring the potential of RBF and tackling the questions still unanswered about many of its operational dimensions. This document takes a closer look at some of the practical aspects of implementing various RBF water schemes. Chapter 2 provides an analytical framework to explore if and when RBF can be a viable option, shedding light on some key factors and preconditions that are necessary for RBF to work--with the understanding that it can be used either as an alternative or a complement to a more traditional input-based funding scheme. Chapter 3 then revisits the concepts discussed in the analytical framework through the analysis of various case studies of RBF approaches in different water-related areas. Some of the case studies are based on actual projects already implemented or ongoing, while others are an illustrative elaboration, given the lack of practical cases to use as sources. Chapter 4 presents some conclusions and lessons learned. The key challenges that are likely to be encountered in designing an RBF scheme deal with: the clarity and level of certainty of the relationships from input to output to outcomes (causal links); the ease and availability of measurable indicators; and, consequently, the optimal determination of the necessary incentive(s) to align the goals of the principal with the agents' deliverables. Appendix A presents a glossary of RBF concepts and acronyms. Appendix B presents specific results and indicators which may be relevant for different sectors.Publication Macro-Micro Feedback Links of Water Management in South Africa : CGE Analyses of Selected Policy Regimes(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-11)The pressure on an already stressed water situation in South Africa is predicted to increase significantly under climate change, plans for large industrial expansion, observed rapid urbanization, and government programs to provide access to water to millions of previously excluded people. The present study employed a general equilibrium approach to examine the economy-wide impacts of selected macro and water related policy reforms on water use and allocation, rural livelihoods, and the economy at large. The analyses reveal that implicit crop-level water quotas reduce the amount of irrigated land allocated to higher-value horticultural crops and create higher shadow rents for production of lower-value, water-intensive field crops, such as sugarcane and fodder. Accordingly, liberalizing local water allocation in irrigation agriculture is found to work in favor of higher-value crops, and expand agricultural production and exports and farm employment. Allowing for water trade between irrigation and non-agricultural uses fueled by higher competition for water from industrial expansion and urbanization leads to greater water shadow prices for irrigation water with reduced income and employment benefits to rural households and higher gains for non-agricultural households. The analyses show difficult tradeoffs between general economic gains and higher water prices, making irrigation subsidies difficult to justify.Publication Indus Basin of Pakistan : Impacts of Climate Risks on Water and Agriculture(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-05)This study, Indus basin of Pakistan: the impacts of climate risks on water and agriculture was undertaken at a pivotal time in the region. The weak summer monsoon in 2009 created drought conditions throughout the country. This followed an already tenuous situation for many rural households faced with high fuel and fertilizer costs and the impacts of rising global food prices. Then catastrophic monsoon flooding in 2010 affected over 20 million people, devastating their housing, infrastructure, and crops. Damages from this single flood event were estimated at US dollar 10 billion, half of which were losses in the agriculture sector. Notwithstanding the debate as to whether these observed extremes are evidence of climate change, an investigation is needed regarding the extent to which the country is resilient to these shocks. It is thus timely, if not critical, to focus on climate risks for water, agriculture, and food security in the Indus basin of Pakistan.Publication Water and Climate Change(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-06)Adaptation to climate impacts on groundwater resources in developed and developing countries has not received adequate attention. This reflects the often poorly understood impacts of climate change, the hidden nature of groundwater and the general neglect of groundwater management. Many developing countries are highly reliant on groundwater. Given expectations of reduced supply in many regions and growing demand, pressure on groundwater resources is set to escalate. This is a crucial problem and demands urgent action. This report addresses the impacts of climate change on groundwater and adaptation options. The Earth's climate is projected to become warmer and more variable. Increased global temperatures are projected to affect the hydrologic cycle, leading to changes in precipitation patterns and increases in the intensity and frequency of extreme events; reduced snow cover and widespread melting of ice; rising sea levels; and changes in soil moisture, runoff and groundwater recharge. Increased evaporation and the risk of flooding and drought could adversely affect security of water supply, particularly surface water. Due to these pressures, as well as global population growth, demand for groundwater is likely to increase.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016-10-02)Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016 is the first of an annual flagship report that will inform a global audience comprising development practitioners, policy makers, researchers, advocates, and citizens in general with the latest and most accurate estimates on trends in global poverty and shared prosperity. This edition will also document trends in inequality and identify recent country experiences that have been successful in reducing inequalities, provide key lessons from those experiences, and synthesize the rigorous evidence on public policies that can shift inequality in a way that bolsters poverty reduction and shared prosperity in a sustainable manner. Specifically, the report will address the following questions: • What is the latest evidence on the levels and evolution of extreme poverty and shared prosperity? • Which countries and regions have been more successful in terms of progress toward the twin goals and which are lagging behind? • What does the global context of lower economic growth mean for achieving the twin goals? • How can inequality reduction contribute to achieving the twin goals? • What does the evidence show concerning global and between- and within-country inequality trends? • Which interventions and countries have used the most innovative approaches to achieving the twin goals through reductions in inequality? The report will make four main contributions. First, it will present the most recent numbers on poverty, shared prosperity, and inequality. Second, it will stress the importance of inequality reduction in ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity by 2030 in a context of weaker growth. Third, it will highlight the diversity of within-country inequality reduction experiences and will synthesize experiences of successful countries and policies, addressing the roots of inequality without compromising economic growth. In doing so, the report will shatter some myths and sharpen our knowledge of what works in reducing inequalities. Finally, it will also advocate for the need to expand and improve data collection—for example, data availability, comparability, and quality—and rigorous evidence on inequality impacts in order to deliver high-quality poverty and shared prosperity monitoring.Publication Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022)Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022: Correcting Course provides the first comprehensive analysis of the pandemic’s toll on poverty in developing countries. It identifies how governments can optimize fiscal policy to help correct course. Fiscal policies offset the impact of COVID-19 on poverty in many high-income countries, but those policies offset barely one quarter of the pandemic’s impact in low-income countries and lower-middle-income countries. Improving support to households as crises continue will require reorienting protective spending away from generally regressive and inefficient subsidies and toward a direct transfer support system—a first key priority. Reorienting fiscal spending toward supporting growth is a second key priority identified by the report. Some of the highest-value public spending often pays out decades later. Amid crises, it is difficult to protect such investments, but it is essential to do so. Finally, it is not enough just to spend wisely - when additional revenue does need to be mobilized, it must be done in a way that minimizes reductions in poor people’s incomes. The report highlights how exploring underused forms of progressive taxation and increasing the efficiency of tax collection can help in this regard. Poverty and Shared Prosperity is a biennial series that reports on global trends in poverty and shared prosperity. Each report also explores a central challenge to poverty reduction and boosting shared prosperity, assessing what works well and what does not in different settings. By bringing together the latest evidence, this corporate flagship report provides a foundation for informed advocacy around ending extreme poverty and improving the lives of the poorest in every country in the world. For more information, please visit worldbank.org/poverty-and-shared-prosperity.Publication The Enabling Environment for Menstrual Health and Hygiene(Washington, DC, 2022-08)Menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) is essential to the well-being and empowerment of women and adolescent girls. Attaining adequate MHH requires access to at least three intersecting elements: (i) access to female-friendly facilities; (ii) access to information and knowledge on sexual reproductive health; and (iii) access to quality and affordable menstrual products. Each of these three elements is in turn influenced by an enabling environment that influences product availability and pricing, discriminatory practices on social stigmas, or the standards on design of public sanitary facilities. Kenya stands out with its comprehensive policies and regulations related to menstrual health and hygiene, including being one of the first countries to have introduced tax reforms on menstrual hygiene products in an effort to make such products more affordable. Despite momentum at the national policy level, women and girls in Kenya continue to face significant challenges in adequately and safely managing their menstrual health and hygiene. The experience and lessons learned in Kenya can therefore benefit other countries at earlier reform stagesPublication DIGITAGRO - Investing in Digital Technology to Increase Market Access for Women Agri-preneurs in Guatemala(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-03-31)Despite the strong role played by the agri-food sector in Guatemala’s economic performance and employment, reflected in high exports and strong results by larger commercial agri-businesses, small producers face daunting levels of market access, revenue generation capacity, and resilience. Schools in remote areas, however, often lack information on which producer to buy their food from, as well as basic knowledge on safe and hygienic cooking practices. These challenges are further exacerbated for women producers, who face higher information gaps, lower market access, and higher informality than their male counterparts, compounded by restrictive social norms and disempowerment. Yet, women who are engaged in agriculture have ample potential to be engaged in the school feeding business, as they tend to specialize in the production of foods that are in high demand by school. The School Feeding Program (SFP) thus represents a crucial window of opportunity for rural women in Guatemala, and a vehicle for their evolution from invisible farmers to proper agri-preneurs – economic agents in their own right in the agribusiness space. Information diffusion through digital technologies can increase market participation in rural areas and holds promise to enhance the status of women in the business sphere. The World Bank’s DIGITAGRO project, piloted digital technologies to improve market access for women agripreneurs, so they could supply the School Feeding Program in a fair, safe, sustainable, and profitable way while helping schools improve children’s nutrition. The purpose of this report is to describe the DIGITAGRO project and to present the findings of the impact evaluation study on the information campaign, in order to derive lessons on the use of digital technologies to promote market access for rural women, with a specific focus on their inclusion in Guatemala’s School Feeding Program The rest of the report is organized as follows. Chapter 2 provides an overview of family farming in Guatemala, including an assessment of the gaps encountered by rural women, and highlights child nutrition issues in the country. Chapter 3 describes the School Feeding Program, highlighting its functioning, the main actors involved, its expected benefits and the challenges it faces. Chapter 4 presents the DIGITAGRO project, providing a rationale for the use of digital technologies in agriculture, describing the main activities of the project, and providing details on the set-up of the impact evaluation study. Chapter 5 presents the experimental setting and main findings of the impact evaluation, whereas the potential mechanisms that could be driving the results are explored in Chapter 6, together with recommendations for promoting participation in the School Feeding Program. Chapter 7 discusses lessons learned and concludes.Publication Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2018(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-10-17)The World Bank Group has two overarching goals: End extreme poverty by 2030 and promote shared prosperity by boosting the incomes of the bottom 40 percent of the population in each economy. As this year’s Poverty and Shared Prosperity report documents, the world continues to make progress toward these goals. In 2015, approximately one-tenth of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty, and the incomes of the bottom 40 percent rose in 77 percent of economies studied. But success cannot be taken for granted. Poverty remains high in Sub- Saharan Africa, as well as in fragile and conflict-affected states. At the same time, most of the world’s poor now live in middle-income countries, which tend to have higher national poverty lines. This year’s report tracks poverty comparisons at two higher poverty thresholds—$3.20 and $5.50 per day—which are typical of standards in lower- and upper-middle-income countries. In addition, the report introduces a societal poverty line based on each economy’s median income or consumption. Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2018: Piecing Together the Poverty Puzzle also recognizes that poverty is not only about income and consumption—and it introduces a multidimensional poverty measure that adds other factors, such as access to education, electricity, drinking water, and sanitation. It also explores how inequality within households could affect the global profile of the poor. All these additional pieces enrich our understanding of the poverty puzzle, bringing us closer to solving it. For more information, please visit worldbank.org/PSP