Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. After Agadir and Casablanca, it is now the capital Rabat's turn to get its own mega seawater desalination plant. The memorandum of understanding was signed between the Minister of the Interior Abdelouafi Laftit and, on the French side, the CEO of the French water and sanitation specialist Veolia. This took place on the sidelines of the state visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Morocco. It is the largest project of its kind in Africa, the second largest in the world, and beyond meeting a pressing need for the inhabitants of the region or regions, the cost per cubic meter of drinking water produced at the future plant is announced as highly competitive and will be mainly produced with green energy. Structured as a public-private partnership, the plant will not only cover the needs of the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra region but also those of Fès-Meknès. So how and with what financing? We discuss this with the CEO of Veolia, Estelle Brachlianoff. Thank you for answering our questions and welcome to Méia TV. First, tell us about this new chapter in the partnership between the Kingdom of Morocco and Veolia, and as we can see in this photo, it was formalized yesterday with this memorandum of understanding.
Yes, I am delighted and you are right to talk about new chapters. There have been many, many chapters in Veolia's history in your wonderful country. We have been here for decades, we have developed many things. We employ 4,000 people in Morocco and we have developed innovative solutions on a number of topics, first and foremost water. Water is a pressing issue for the kingdom. The King has had various opportunities to set the direction for the next 10, 15, 20 years for the kingdom, and Veolia, well, my job is to put all the know-how and innovation of a world leader in this field at the service of Morocco and Moroccans. So what have we already done? We have developed, for example, avoiding waste in water network distribution. It's digital to detect leaks in real time. A significant amount is lost in the pipes, around 20-30%. So 20-30% is actually not bad statistics; historically we came from much higher, and little by little, year after year, we gain percentages to bring it down. And I would say that today, thanks to everything we do on this subject, the cities we manage for Veolia in Morocco are among the good students. For example, you cite percentages; in the United States it is double, to give you an idea in the country in general. So Morocco has nothing to be ashamed of, on the contrary. But it is precisely the know-how of a company like Veolia, and also the will of the public authorities in the broad sense, starting with His Majesty, and then a very clear vision, I think I can say that to the credit of everything that has been done in recent years. So I was saying: detect leaks with digital and artificial intelligence to detect leaks. It is also the reuse of water, what we call non-conventional water. In this beautiful city of Rabat, more than 90% of green spaces, for example, are watered and maintained thanks to treated, recycled water. And there is still much more to do of this type. And then when we have already exhausted all these solutions, there comes a time when we have no choice but to resort to desalination. And there, desalination, again innovation, but over the last decades we have managed to divide by five the energy consumption of seawater desalination. We have little by little, one by one, tried to see how we could save, do better, be more efficient. And so you mentioned in your introduction the price, before talking about the price, already the production capacity, which is not insignificant: we are talking about 822 cubic meters of drinking water per day, madam.
Madame Brachlianoff, if we could perhaps bring that figure closer to our viewers so they understand what it really represents in terms of meeting the needs of two important regions of the kingdom.
Well, it is potentially the entire consumption of the wider metropolitan area that will be met. It will be the second largest plant in the world; they are in the Gulf, they are in the Gulf. It is nevertheless important and should be noted: it will be the second largest desalination plant. It will be, well, it is not yet built, but it is formalized, it is already the first stone of the building, this memorandum of understanding that was signed. It will be the largest seawater desalination plant in the world. These are very, very large plants that traditionally we have accompanied in the Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates. It is the type of country where we have little by little, once again, learned and done better year after year at Veolia.
So we are talking about water needs for nearly 9 million inhabitants. What is the innovation for this new plant that will irrigate agricultural plots but also serve to meet the drinking water needs of the population in the affected cities, that is, the cities of these two regions of the kingdom?
So this is a key issue. The kingdom has faced a huge drought for years, and it is getting worse year after year. Even if there were good omens from the meeting between the King and President Macron, it rained in recent days, nevertheless the drought is there, it has set in because it is one of the first consequences of climate change. So all the scientists tell us that Morocco will face even greater droughts, even more frequent in the coming decades. So it is to the credit, once again, of all the decision-makers in this country to have said we must anticipate to be able to ensure water supply for the population. That is the objective of this desalination plant, but also there are other projects in the kingdom for the agricultural world or for industries, because we all need water: industries, farmers, the population. There is water in your jacket and not just in the glass in front of us. Water is everywhere and it is absolutely needed. And the good news is that we already have some of the solutions today, and so in the next 10 years we will deploy them in the service of Morocco and Moroccans.
What does this memorandum of understanding consist of, Madame Brachlianoff? What are the outlines of the public-private partnership? And also tell us about this very competitive price per cubic meter that you promise us.
So what we are going to work on together, since it is a memorandum of understanding, there is a lot of work to do in the coming months to carry out very detailed studies on a number of subjects to converge on a project that is as competitive as possible in terms of value for money and with the most neutral environmental footprint possible. And in particular you mentioned the green energy that will power the plant. That is what we can say today. How much will it cost? How much does a plant like this cost? We are talking about hundreds of millions of euros, and once again the detailed studies will allow us to refine all that. But the alternative would be to have no water, so we see that each time the subject is essentially to start by avoiding waste: leak reduction, reuse of water, and then arrive at desalination when we have explored all the alternatives before.
