|
|
|
Previous
Next
|
| Small-Scale Irrigation in a Multi-ethnic Oasis Environment: the Case of Zaouit Amelkis Village, South-east Morocco |
|
Reference |
| Hsain Ilahiane, "Small-Scale Irrigation in a Multi-ethnic Oasis Environment: the Case of Zaouit Amelkis Village, South-east Morocco.", Journal of Political Ecology, Volume.3 1996 |
|
Introduction to the Institution |
| The palm grove is the heart of the village of Zaouit Amelkis and its main source of subsistence. Concerns about the management of the palm grove and its irrigation system are the stuff of everyday life in the village. As a defensive strategy the village and its council crafted a bundle of rules to govern the use of the palm grove. The stipulations of customary law reported in written documents as in the ta‘qqit of the Lgara village and oral history testify to the determination of the Ait Atta Berbers to leave nothing to pure chance. |
|
Rules for Management
of the Institution |
|
(a) Boundary Rules |
| Spacial Boundaries: The village of Zaouit Amelkis, in the middle Ziz Valley oasis, southeast Morocco. Social Boundaries: The Amelkis community is composed of three ethnic groups: Berbers, Arabs, and Haratine. The population of the village is 1,296 making up 193 households, 10 percent Berber, 8 percent Shurfa and Murabitin Arabs, and 82 percent Haratine. Haratine, could never acquire land in the Ait Atta land historically. They were institutionally blocked from owning or having access to the means of production. They are also barred from the right to cut and collect grass on the banks of the river and the canals as well as on parcel boundaries. However they have started acquiring nowadays. |
|
(b) Governance
rules |
| Each village has a local council (taqbilt in Berber) that administers the economic, political, and social organization of the village. The management of water and land fall under the responsibility of the council. The palm grove has its chief, amghar n’tamazirt, to see to it that fields and produce are not subject to theft. The irrigation network has also its chief, amghar n-tiruggin, who supervises the cleaning and maintenance of the canals and the dam. The two chiefs are always Berber or Arab, and they are appointed by the council based on their age, honesty, and religiosity as these attributes are essential to the just management of the subsistence base. Communal institutions govern the agricultural calender and land use, and fix the opening and closing of date and olive harvests. Maintenance: The maintenance and clearing of the secondary and tertiary ditches is the responsibility of the beneficiaries, labor required for the upgrading and maintenance of the diversion dam and the main canals, the life line of the village, is provided on a pro rata basis by each taggura owner. For the maintenance of the dam, there is a yearly campaign on the village level to mobilize the work force to repair and fix the dam, the canal, and the major branches. Communal help is called upon when the dam is destroyed by floods. For the maintenance of the irrigation system, all males past the age of puberty have the obligation to take part in the upkeep of the dam regardless of whether they own land or not. |
|
(c) Resource Allocation |
| Water channeled through the main canals is the property of all members of the community and is everyone’s concern. The system of water distribution in Amelkis is based upon the principle of mulk, or private ownership. Thus, the water that a person gets is as much their property just, as is their land property. The owners of the upper canal fields can take as much water as they wish without taking into account the interests of the lower canal field owners. This distribution of water is reinforced through the customary rule of the priority of the upper canal lands over the lower canal lands. Distribution of irrigation water is based on the concept of mulliy or “turns.” A “turn” of irrigation belonged to each household and applied to fields. Land holdings in the Ziz Valley are private property or aharmil in terms of its classification within the Ait Atta land tenure taxonomy. Before distributing land, the council along with the fqih and outside property assessors would set out to the palm oasis to evaluate the nature of terrain, surface areas, irrigation nodes and the depth of the water table. They then divide the valley, or relevant area, into a number of zones along the river banks: an upstream zone, a middle stream zone, and a lower stream zone |
|
Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| Not mentioned |
|
Problems Faced by Institution |
| Theft tends to be high because almost all the Haratine are landless and they are barred from the right to cut and collect grass on the banks of the river and the canals as well as on parcel boundaries. While the landless Haratine are required to participate in the operation and maintenance of the irrigation infrastructure of the village, they are denied the right of use of wild grass and forbs patches found on the banks of the river and canals as well as on field boundaries. The offender is subject to a public denunciation from the minaret and later given the choice between feeding a party of 10 or 12 people for a lavish dinner or one or two days community service clearing and cleaning the main canals so that water runs smoothly. The dinner expenses are usually too stiff for the poor and landless to bear, and to save face he is compelled to negotiate his way through credit, which in turn, makes him indebted and dependent on his patrons. The underlying motive of this feast is to bankrupt an offender, and at the same time to reinforce the religious ideology and power of Arabs and Berbers, and to perpetuate the vulnerability and dependence of the landless Haratine. |
|
Changes in the Institution over time |
| Recently, however, access to land by the low status Haratine has been facilitated by revenue streams linked to migration to Europe. Certainly, the Haratine have accumulated more land over the last two decades (22 percent of the village’s private land) and have harvested more economic and political representation at the local and regional levels. They have slowly repudiated the patron-client society and have hailed the opportunity to migrate. Haratine are using their new wealth to short-circuit the traditional barriers of access to resources and appropriate what is inherently a Berber cultural concept, al-asl or land, to construct a multiplicity of cultural and power bases to challenge the traditional cultural hegemony of the Berbers and the Arabs. |
|
Purpose |
| irrigation management |
|
Country |
| Morocco |
|
Region |
| The middle of Ziz Valley oasis, southeast Morocco |
|
Date Of Publication |
| RS-1996 |
|
| |
