The country's overall dam fill rates currently average 28 percent but are feared to shrink by 2050 as drought is expected to persist, according to the agriculture ministry. Over that same period, official figures project an 11 percent drop in rainfall and a rise in temperatures of 1.3 degrees.

As the country grapples with the increasingly volatile effects of climate change, King Mohammed VI has pledged that desalination will provide more than 1.7 billion cu m a year and cover more than half of the country's drinking water needs by 2030.

The lack of water also threatens Morocco's vital agriculture sector, which employs about one-third of the working age population and accounts for 14 percent of exports.