Watermelons in the desert in Morocco: Struggles around a groundwater commons-in-the-making

Bossenbroek Lisa, Ftouhi Hind, Kadiri Zakaria, Kuper Marcel. 2023. Watermelons in the desert in Morocco: Struggles around a groundwater commons-in-the-making. Water Alternatives, 16 (1) : 87-107.

Résumé : Groundwater is essential for early-season agriculture in many arid regions. In such regions, however, groundwater recharge is generally low, leading to groundwater degradation. State responses are seldom effective in addressing this issue, which leads to fatalist narratives of the unsustainability of profitable agricultural growth and the collapse of aquifers. We argue that such narratives make it difficult to recognise more promising instances in which communities find solutions to groundwater degradation. We call for a fine-grained analysis of the social practices around the use of groundwater, which, we argue, represent a process of commoning. We do so while recognising that the collective action of communities is embedded in an intricate set of relations with other stakeholders including the state, and that the positive environmental and transformative social change that is often associated with commoning cannot be taken for granted at the outset. Building on the case of the arid Drâa Valley in Morocco where watermelon production has expanded rapidly, we illustrate how the process of commoning evolves through different social practices, including: 1) the use of new farming practices that reveal the potential of the aquifer; 2) the representation of the aquifer as severely degraded and the development of a narrative around it being a collective good to be protected against outsiders; 3) the defining and negotiating of rules to control groundwater access and use; and 4) the engagement in negotiations and the resolving of conflicts. Our analysis shows that commoning, as performed by young local farmers, is about extending the lifespan of the aquifer for agricultural production rather than preserving it indefinitely; however, an examination of commoning practices also reveals the capacity of the community to change the course of the future.

Mots-clés Agrovoc : approches communautaires, eau souterraine, irrigation, participation communautaire, conservation de l'eau, pastèque, Citrullus lanatus

Mots-clés géographiques Agrovoc : Maroc

Mots-clés complémentaires : Action collective

Mots-clés libres : Commoning, Groundwater, Collective action, Arid regions, Social practices, Morocco, Draa valley

Classification Agris : P10 - Ressources en eau et leur gestion
U70 - Sciences humaines et sociales

Champ stratégique Cirad : CTS 5 (2019-) - Territoires

Agences de financement hors UE : Belmont Forum, Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, IHE Delft Instituut voor Water Onderwijs, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung

Projets sur financement : (NLD) Transformations to Groundwater Sustainability

Auteurs et affiliations

• Bossenbroek Lisa, University of Koblenz-Landau (DEU)
• Ftouhi Hind, CRESC (MAR)
• Kadiri Zakaria, Université Hassan II de Casablanca (MAR)
• Kuper Marcel, CIRAD-ES-UMR G-EAU (FRA) ORCID: 0000-0002-1240-0592

Source : Cirad-Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/603660/)

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