Morocco faces significant and growing pressure on its water resources, driven by an essentially semi-arid to arid climate, recurrent drought and high spatial and temporal variability in rainfall. Renewable water resources are estimated at 879 m³ per capita a year in 2013 — below the water-stress threshold — and are unevenly distributed across the country and from year to year. Agriculture accounts for the majority of water demand, and national needs already exceed the resources that can be mobilized, a deficit met in part through the over-abstraction of groundwater. In several plains, a rapid boom in irrigated horticulture has driven aquifer levels down sharply, at rising energy, social and environmental cost.

Under the Regional Water Scarcity Initiative (WSI) programme, FAO works with the Government of Morocco and national partners across the Programme's three strategic outcomes: strengthening agricultural water governance, building the resilience of food systems and water services, and advancing knowledge, innovation and regional cooperation.