In 2024, at the height of the drought, the authorities ordered car washes and hammams to close three days a week in several cities, including Casablanca. Winter 2025-2026 was one of the wettest since 1981, but the lesson still holds: an activity that depends entirely on mains or borehole water is vulnerable. Recycling wash water means you keep working when water becomes scarce, and you cut your bill the rest of the time.
The requests we receive come from car wash networks that want to know the recovery rate and cost of recycling, hauliers washing their truck fleets, companies cleaning solar panels, concrete plants, and small production units that must pretreat their wash water before discharge.
What wash water contains
- Suspended solids: sand, mud, brake dust, concrete laitance;
- Hydrocarbons and grease: engine oil, diesel, chassis grease;
- Detergents and sometimes waxes;
- for concrete, very alkaline water (pH often above 11) loaded with fines.
The typical recycling chain
- Silt trap and oil separator: the first, essential step;
- Settling, possibly accelerated by coagulation-flocculation;
- pH neutralisation for concrete water;
- Filtration on sand or multimedia, then activated carbon for odours and surfactants;
- Disinfection (chlorination or UV) to avoid odours in storage tanks;
- for a spot-free final rinse (car bodies, solar panels), softened water or, better, permeate from a small reverse osmosis unit.
A well-designed installation lets you reuse a large share of the wash water; the actual rate depends on the type of dirt, evaporation and the quality required for rinsing. We calculate it case by case from your volumes and constraints.
What the law says
- Discharging wash water into the public sewer requires the network operator's authorisation and compliance with its limit values, with suitable pretreatment (article 109 of Law 36-15). A non-compliant discharge carries a fine of MAD 10,000 to 50,000 (article 148).
- Internal recycling by the holder of the abstraction authorisation is exempt from the reuse authorisation (article 66), and reused water is exempt from the fee (article 27).
- During a shortage the administration can impose restrictions on use (articles 126 and 127): check the rules in force in your municipality.
How to get started
To price a project we need a few figures: number of vehicles or machines washed per day, water consumption, type of washing (high pressure, gantry, brushes), available space, and current discharge point. From there we propose a compact solution, often skid- or container-mounted, with an estimate of the investment and the expected water savings.
Do you wash vehicles or machinery? Send us your water analysis or describe your need: our engineers will reply with a technical proposal and a price. Request a quote · Contact us
Sources
- Law no. 36-15 on water (loi 36-15), consolidated text (SGG, 30/07/2025) — sgg.gov.ma
- 2024 restriction measures (hammams, car washes) — Finances News Hebdo
- Winter 2025-2026 among the wettest since 1981 — Médias24
Information article, up to date on 14 November 2026. It does not replace the official texts or the advice of your river basin agency (ABH) or network operator.