Water conservation in Casablanca, Morocco

This study examines water consumption characteristics in Casablanca and ana lyzes approaches for sustainable water demand management. Research procedur es involve the development and estimation of water demand models for the re sidential/commercial, industrial, and institutional sectors; forecasts of w ater demand to 2010; and simulation of the effects of a complex of water co nservation methods on the forecasted demands. The results indicate that res idential/commercial water demand its weakly responsive to price changes (el asticity = -0.448) while institutional water demand is slightly more respon sive (elasticity = -0.648). The conservation approaches used in the simulat ions included public education, plumbing code revisions to require use of w ater conservation devices, leak detection and repair, pricing policy, meter ing, and pressure reduction. The results indicate that considerable saving in water use can be attained through a comprehensive water demand managemen t program.