Dr. Tracy Valcourt, Al Akhawayn University, and Idir Yacou
The aims and objectives of this project are to use a case study to investigate the effects of water scarcity on the Amazigh nomads of the Drâa River Basin. Located in south-eastern Morocco, the basin spans approximately 115,000 km² from the High Atlas Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean in the west and to the Sahara Desert in the south. It is considered one of the world’s top ten most arid river basins.
The study is situated in the Drâa-Tafilalet region of the basin. According to a 2014 census, the region had a population of 1,635,008, of whom 25,000 were Amazigh* nomads. This number represents a 60% decrease from a census taken ten years earlier, and it is anticipated that a 2024 census will show the number halved again, with just 12,000 Amazigh nomads remaining in Morocco.
Climate change is a major cause of this decrease, as prolonged droughts make the dominant livelihood of raising livestock increasingly difficult. This has forced many nomads to move into cities, where they are often ill-suited to live and face displacement, intense poverty, and high unemployment.
By collecting on-site oral histories from nomads who frequent the area near a recently dug well (February 2024) in a desert region called Ighfen Rrich, 8 km from the city of Zagora, the project aims to establish a portrait of the challenges faced by nomadic peoples in the Drâa River Basin due to increasing aridity brought about by climate change and human activities. In addition to learning how nomads practically contend with water scarcity, the study seeks to explore how the degradation of nature affects wellbeing, and to understand the collaborative strategies adopted in response, including what further resources may be needed to support these efforts.
As explained by Idir Yachou, the local Amazigh who dug the well central to the study, nomads move in relation to water sources. With the water table lowering due to water-intensive agricultural practices in the oases and decreasing snow run-off from the mountains, nomad migration patterns and ways of life across the Drâa River Basin have become increasingly affected. Livelihoods have also been impacted by land management practices, such as the construction of the El Mansour Eddahbi dam in 1972, which was built to provide a reservoir of drinking water for the city of Ouarzazate and led to the drying up of Lake Iriki.