Six days without water: Moulay Bouazza residents face severe shortage

Residents in the Moroccan town of Moulay Bouazza and the surrounding area of Sebt Ait Rahou have entered their sixth consecutive day without access to potable water. The continuous disruption has plunged dozens of families into hardship, forcing them to seek alternative water sources and fueling widespread discontent.

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The region is experiencing a severe crisis in drinking water supply, a situation that brings back a long-standing issue that has troubled the residents for years.

Local activist Mohamed Saadani described the situation as a severe crisis, highlighting that this is not an isolated incident but a recurring problem that has plagued the community for years. He noted that while authorities announced repair work and gradual resumption of supply, the current crisis reveals deeper structural flaws within the water supply network that require comprehensive solutions.

Saadani pointed out that these water shortages have become particularly acute during peak consumption periods, such as summer, Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha. He recalled protests in 2019, involving hundreds of citizens and local businesses, which underscored the significant suffering caused by these repeated interruptions and their direct impact on daily life and economic activities.

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The drinking water supply crisis in Moulay Bouazza and Sebt Ait Rahou in Khénifra province is no longer just a temporary technical fault, but has become a recurring structural crisis, evidenced by documented facts since at least 2015.

The current six-day outage has exacerbated the difficulties, especially amid high temperatures. Families have been compelled to travel long distances for water or purchase it at their own expense. Public facilities and commercial activities have also been directly affected. Saadani suggested the recent blockage in the main pipeline, caused by a buildup of limescale deposits over nearly four kilometers, explains the delay in restoring service. However, he questioned the effectiveness of the network's regular monitoring and preventive maintenance, asking how such deposits could accumulate without detection.

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These data, while explaining part of the reasons for the delay in restoring supply, raise legitimate questions about the extent to which the supply network is subject to regular monitoring and preventive maintenance, and how the deposits reached this magnitude without being detected or treated before becoming a thirst crisis affecting thousands of citizens.