According to Said Ait Friha, Head of Water Resources Planning and Studies at the Oum Er-Rbia River Basin Agency, the basin recorded substantial rainfall between Sept. 1, 2025, and July 20, 2026, totaling around 586 millimeters. This represents a 42% surplus compared with a normal year. Rainfall varied across sub-basins, reaching 756 millimeters in the upper basin and 393 millimeters in the lower basin.
“During the same period, water inflows into the major dams across the Oum Er-Rbia River Basin reached approximately 3.543 billion cubic meters, representing a 26% increase compared with the same period of a normal year,” Ait Friha said.
Regarding Al Massira Dam, the largest dam in the Oum Er-Rbia River Basin and the second largest in Morocco, with a storage capacity of about 2.65 billion cubic meters, Ait Friha said the dam, which began operations in 1979, plays a key role in ensuring water security.
He said the dam supplies drinking water to several areas, including southern Casablanca, Marrakech, Settat, Berrechid, Sidi Bennour, Youssoufia, Benguerir, and a number of urban centers in El Jadida and Safi provinces, as well as neighboring areas. It also irrigates around 97,000 hectares in the Doukkala irrigation scheme and contributes to hydropower generation through the facilities connected to it.
Al Massira Dam.
On the dam’s hydrological situation, Ait Friha said that after seven consecutive years of drought and below-average rainfall, Al Massira Dam has seen a marked recovery. Water inflows into the dam’s sub-basin totaled approximately 613 million cubic meters between Sept. 1, 2025, and July 20, 2026.
He added that around 690 million cubic meters of water have also been transferred to the dam from upstream reservoirs since the beginning of the current season through July 20 as part of efforts to balance water resources between the upper and lower sections of the Oum Er-Rbia River Basin and manage the storage levels of upstream dams, whose filling rates have reached record highs.
According to Ait Friha, this improvement has had a positive impact on the dam’s water reserves, which stood at approximately 1.102 billion cubic meters as of July 20, 2026, corresponding to a filling rate of 41.6%. On the same date last year, the reservoir held just 105 million cubic meters of water, representing a filling rate of 4%.
