Tlout: Revival and hope

The ancient water resource management system in Morocco has survived to this day because of its inherent sustainability. The khettara system works not only without disrupting the natural replenishment cycle of the groundwater but also works precisely because of it. One study showed that in Tafilalet oasis, the downsizing in date palm was in tandem with the decrease in the groundwater table thickness. While other agriculture has witnessed a boom in Morocco, date palm trees have significantly dropped in numbers. The presence of these trees is seen as a proxy for the health of the oasis it grows in.

Surface water in Morocco is fed by the mountains. As the temperatures rose and rainfall decreased over the years, the surface water reduced. This has led to an increasing reliance on the groundwater supply for these date palm plantations. The soils in oases like the Tafilalet are increasingly salinized due to high evaporation rates. This makes date palm one of the few plants capable of growing in these harsh soils. Besides the decline in date palm numbers, another indication of the groundwater reduction is the number of well drying up. In the Tafilalet, the number of wells has halved. 

As appeared in El Khousmi, et al., 2014.

In the face of this threat to the groundwater resources, the increased agricultural policies make sense only in the short-term. Water governance for most parts of the history has been focussed on the sustainability and ownership of khettara and the groundwater resources it makes available. In Marrakech, most of these khettaras are virtually unusable. The blame has been put on climate change and droughts, over-pumping and the use of technocratic solutions, and the lack of governance between managing both of these spheres. 

In Tafilalet, people had taken matters into their own hands. They elect members, negotiate water schedules, ownership, and communal maintenance work over the khettaras. Nearly half of the khettaras still survive in Tafilalet. The high rainfall variability has actually led to the reviving of several khettaras that had dried out before. The locals use the word "tlout" to describe this. This "tlout", or revival, refers to not just revival of the khettaras but the work being done by the old chiefs and the new generation trying to maintain the sustainability of its local water table. 

While water pumps have placed high pressure on the water table and led to a decline in groundwater., these have also brought prosperity and abundance in volumes that were unimaginable before. It will be impossible to support the population with the sole use of systems like khettara. Instead, there is a need for a transformation in water governance thinking. Technology like drip-irrigation, powered by solar panels and financed by local co-operatives, have in some places been a success. This needs support on a larger, macro-scale in the entire region. 

References:

1. El Khoumsi, W., et al. "Deterioration of groundwater in arid environments: what impact in oasis dynamics? Case study of Tafilalet, Morocco." World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Environmental, Chemical, Ecological, Geological and Geophysical Engineering 8.11 (2014): 764-770.
2. El Faiz, Mohammed, and Thierry Ruf. "An introduction to the Khettara in Morocco: two contrasting cases." Water and Sustainability in Arid Regions. Springer, Dordrecht, 2010. 151-163.