Morocco: Policy, Law and Governance Structure

Morocco: Policy, Law and Governance Structure

Water shortages, and looming scarcity, continue to be among the most important development issues facing Morocco. Overall per capita water supply esimates, based on the total amount of potentially usable water is 800m³ per year, places Morocco in the ipoori category (500 to 2,000m³ per person per year) in international terms, whereby actual use is estimated at 460m³year. As the population is expected to increase by one third by the year 2014, and double towards the middle of the next century, with increasing urbanization and industrialization rates water is considered a “great challenge for the country.”(de Sherbinin and Dompka, 1998) The increased frequency of droughts in Morocco during the last decade as further exacerbated the water scarcity problem.(World Resources Institute, 1994) In the last decades, increased pressure on water resources caused by urbanization, industrialization, and growing population and agricultural production has put a sever strain on water resources.(Zejali and Bennouna, 2004) Accordingly, Zejali and Bennouna posit that the volume of water that can be mobilized per capita under normal climactic conditions has, in recent years, already reached it maximum.(Zejali and Bennouna, 2004) As water shortages impact productivity, increasing restrictions on industry output relative to resources demand and human capital have encouraged policy reform in recent years. A look back at the years since Morocco gained its independence from its French Protectorate has led to a reassessment of government policy since 1956.

Morocco has made a significant public investment in large dams. In fact, 1968 brought about a “politique des barrages” (politics of the dams) with the support of the World Bank that would actualize into the construction of 14 dams through 1998 to allow for the irrigation of 1 million hectares of agricultural lands.(Richards, 2001) An emphasis on central control and planning since the 1960’s has resulted in economic stagnation, social decline, and environmental devastation. As the government replaced local institutions with imposed administrators it undermined the governance base that supported development and resource management. Today, large dams are underperforming and financially draining. Moroccan irrigation development in the form of large dams is significant. From 1912 to 1956 fourteen dams were constructed. From 1957 to 1967 three dams were built. From 1968 to 1991 during a period named the “politic des barrages,” Morocco adopted a policy designed with the assistance of the World Bank to “forestall the ravages of drought on the agricultural sector” as a matter of national security, according to Alan Richards.(Richards, 2001, 4) The continued mobilization and distribution of water resources was projected to reach 2 percent of GDP by the year 2000, however, this target was not met due to fiscal constraints.(Richards, 2001, 4) “Despite the fiscal costs and the increasing difficulty of augmenting supplies…the government of Morocco continues on this course rather than the efficiency of water use.”(Richards, 2001, 4)

In Southern Morocco, on the margins of the Sahara Desert, lies the remains of the Tafilalt Oasis, a historically important caravan crossroads and trading center. The Oasis met its demise after the opening of the the Hassan Addakhil dam near Errachidia, impounding the oued Ziz about 75km north of the Tafilat.(Lightfoot, 1996, 5). Water from the oued Ziz was the primary source of the Tafilalt basin. Now water from the reservoir is released through government canals only three to four times per year. This water is to support irrigation for approximately 9400 hectares, more than 75% of the Tafilalt, but the water is so thinly spread it can no longer support agricultural production.(Lightfoot, 1996, 3)

According to Dale Lightfoot, in his article on Moroccan Khettar, “communities and cultures dependent on irrigation have forever improvised, borrowed, and improved their water management technologies in an effort to expand production…” However, “Today, more than ever in the past, injudicious attempts to expand the use of surface and groundwater without regard to the sustainability of withdrawal, are depleting groundwater and feeding social and environmental instabilities.”(Lighfoot, 1996, 5)

The following discussion further highlights the limited success of policy change as it continues to undervalue the importance of local governance pillars to support effective institutional development, i.e. history, traditions and social value and strength.

Morocco runs a chronic merchandise trade deficit (Environmental Law, 1999) As a result it has placed great emphasis of economic reform that includes a commitment to balancing its significant trade deficit by establishing a free trade zone and implementing a series of bilateral free trade agreements, including with the European Union and Turkey. According to an economic policy advisor for the Prime Minister, the 2005 policy directives for Morocco continue to focus on increasing existing industry output through grants, tax abatement, and other stimulus. A focus on developing new industries is also a priority. A reliance on agricultural exports to offset its trade imbalance continues to be emphasized.(Morocco Interviews, 2005)

The Moroccan government has reduced its role in the economy over the last decade. In particular, it ceased direct credit and foreign exchange allocation, reduced trade barriers, and restrained government spending, lowered taxes and embarked on a privatization program.”(Environmental Law, 1999) To promote investment and job creation the government has attempted to lay the groundwork for good governance, through the implementation of legal reforms and policy development on a national scale.

An emphasis on decentralized control has led to an emphasis on reorganizing communities into regions with a further emphasis on developing the most effective export trade systems. Accordingly regions are realigned with a port city to support its commitment to export development. Reforms on a local scale seek to encourage community involvement and establish partnerships between government, civil society, and the private sector according to USAID.(USAID: Morocco, 2006) Interviews with parliamentarians, members of local communities, and administrators reveal that this realignment has left many communities, including Figuig that is not export oriented, with little support from regional and national level government. According to Mohammed Kemmou, a retired parliamentarian and native of Figuig, it is further disassociated by an artificial relationship with communities that have little in common (i.e. an oasis that exports little of its produce with a port city dependent on export and geographically unrelated and physically distant.(Figuig Interviews, 2005)

While the move toward decentralization and loosened government controls has allowed for the reintroduction of community participation and stake holder involvement local industry, and social networks and institutions destroyed towns and villages throughout the Sahara and Atlas Mountains. Communities are no longer viable without direct financial and administrative support. They are not equipped with the important supports that previously existed after developing gradually over time. A tradition of migration had developed and individuals and families left devastated communities for metropolitan areas. This further challenged the environmental balance and exacerbated the problem of resource scarcity in the industrial regions.

Water resources are increasingly strained as the concomitant increase in social stresses of migration, and population growth, and a national priority of economic development in the absence of a comprehensive social and environmental policy to support economic growth over the long-run. The growing frequency of drought years since 1980 has intensified the exodus from country to city whereby the growth rate for urban areas reached 3.61% through 1999 while the rural growth rate had not surpassed 0.67% during the same time period.”(Bennis, Tazi Sadeq, 1998)

The nation’s water scarcity and its consequent impact on society, faces formidable challenges including an under-performing economy, high levels of unemployment (21%) and illiteracy (53% percent). With this, the country has undertaken a series of bold economic, political, and social reforms to improve the quality of life for its citizens.

Water management in Morocco through the turn of the millennium had been dominated by government agencies. As the country “runs on water” it has made the issue of water scarcity a priority and is an active participant in international institutions that support a model of IWRM. The recent move toward a policy of decentralization and involving stakeholders in the process,” however “is too little too late.”(Bennis, Tazi Sadeq, 1998).

To further support its development goals Morocco has accepted a significant amount of international aid from agencies such as USAID and the World Bank that have introduced programs to improve water resources management in agricultural, urban, and industrial sectors. Following a formula for development devised by these outside agencies large scale, high budget projects have been introduced. Unfortunately, these have met with limited success. There is minimal integration across sectors, especially between the increasingly competitive rural and urban water users. In keeping with a theory of integrative management that incorporates cooperation, trust and value among stake holders there needs to be greater emphasis on integrating the disparate resources of "local, regional, and national agencies, in agriculture, infrastructure, environment, potable water, health, and land management into a sustainable system in which the principles of equity, efficiency, and transparency are used to improve social welfare and economic growth.”(Rhodes, 1995)

Policy makers have committed to a national program to rationalize and optimize water management that follows the guidelines of international consensus on water management articulated at Dublin and since adopted by a variety of international organizations. The key step in this restructuring was taken in 1995, when the Water Code “Le Code des Eaux”, (No. 10-95) decentralizing financial and planning authority for water resources to a small number of water river basin agencies (RBA) was enacted. This code includes several articles related to the protection and preservation of water resources. Notably, the law calls for the creation of basin agencies to evaluate, plan and manage water resources within their hydrographic catchments. These are also responsible for water quality monitoring and enforcement the Water Code “Le Code des Eaux”, (No. 10-95)

The problem remains, however, that there is a disparate relationship between the tradition of value that supported systems of effective water resources management in the past and the dissociated community systems of today. The current administration must consider policy that supports a reintroduction of society and value to the process of water resources system development. It is recognized that “to prevent a water-induced crisis in Morocco, fundamental changes in water availability and use, based on equitable and transparent decisions involving the participation of community groups, the private sector, and water users associations, are essential.”(USAID: Morocco, 2006)

The 1995 water law established the principles of vested interests and public property rights. On the institutional side, the law retains traditional structures, but does not designate a specific supervising ministry, allowing for decentralization and introducing basin agencies using government workers.”(Bennis, Tazi Sadeq, 1998). The law that decentralized financial and planning authority for water resources to river basin agencies is designed to strengthen public/private partnerships for water resources management. But the importance of forging relationships and supporting social networks and established institutions to reintroduce the foundations of effective institutions and consequently governance systems to support effective IWRM are non-existent. Rather, as part of a 1997 decentralization/regionalization law passed by the legislature 16 new regions were created to provide the primary division of Morocco.

“Water management in Morocco, like everywhere else, is tied to the management of other natural resources and must address the needs of its major users.”(Bennis, Tazi Sadeq, 1998). However, policy that defines major users from a distance without consideration of the community’s social, political, and economic environment does not support substantive demand management policy. Policy today, tends to define major users as industrial producers and growing urban communities effectively denying rural communities development support.

Since Morocco gained its independence demographic characteristics have led authorities to place great emphasis on population policy and management of natural resources, particularly water.”(Bennis, Tazi Sadeq, 1998). Morocco has taken a census of the population every 11 or 12 years since 1960. It took more than 50 years, from 1900-1952, for the population to double, from five million to 9.3 million. The growth rate, a mere 0.6 percent at the start of the century, steadily increased to 2.8 percent between 1952 and 1960, before declining to a level of 2.06 percent between 1982 and 1994 attributed to increased use of contraception; relative decline in fertility than mortality; an increase in the number of unmarried women; and an increase in emigration.”(Bennis, Tazi Sadeq, 1998).

Positive social developments according to Bennis, are “the result of a population policy, followed since independence in 1956, that is characterized by the abrogation in 1956 of a law against the use of contraception, the liberalization of abortion (1967), the revision of the legal status of women, and the implementation of several ‘Population Education” activities dealing with such issues as spacing births, improving literacy, and health and hygiene.”(Bennis, Tazi Sadeq, 1998). But policy is disjointed as economic development is continually emphasized. Importantly, development is defined by increases in trade and industrial production whereby the corresponding long-term growth depends on the natural resource base and integrated social, legal, and political policy that supports development from within communities supported from outside, i.e. national policy and support.

If water scarcity is not considered in developing social and economic policy the results could prove debilitating over the long-run. Economic policy and political change over the past 50 years have, in fact, had a dramatic effect on the country’s economic outlook, and social change. This in turn has resulted in a lack of community, environmental value, and cultural diversity which is likely to challenge policy makers for decades in search of sustainable development.

“In Morocco there are two types of irrigation: Large-scale hydraulics (GH), involving vast areas fed by high-capacity dams and providing year-round water supply (presently about 500,000 out of a potential 830,000 hectares); and small-scale hydraulics (PMH), involving small areas of several hundred hectares fed by water sources that are not highly regulated (e.g., pumps, water diversion, co-lineal reservoirs, spring water catchments, and flood waters). The government’s interest in PMH dates to the 1960s, but increased in the mid-1980s because of frequent droughts, and enabled by credits granted by the World Bank, the German Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau, and state subsidies encouraged the proliferation of dam projects. Estimates show 813,000 hectares of PMH areas, including:

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  383,000 hectares irrigated by year-round water (47 percent);
  
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  265,000 hectares irrigated by seasonal water (33 percent); and
  
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  165,000 hectares irrigated by flood waters (20 percent).
  

Still in the late 1990s there remained an emphasis on the expansion of Morocco’s network of large and medium dams. Even today, as Figuig, looks for solutions to its increasing problem of water scarcity local administrators have proposed the construction of a dam to divert water from a distant river to meet increasing local demand. The argument remains that continued development of large scale water resources projects would increase the supply of water. Projections of such environmental intervention could increase the available water resources by as much as one-fourth according to Rhodes, et al. Rather than support a system of demand management and complimentary policy initiatives that could perhaps encourage a decrease in population growth rates and immigration to metropolitan areas the emphasis remains on meeting increasing demands. Citing the projected doubling of the population by 2010, especially in urban and industrial centers, the resulting increases in demand has led policy makers to maintain a reactionary policy to develop large scale water projects as a means of meeting these increased needs.

Demand management, throughout the 1990’s continued to take a back seat to the development of delivery systems that were thought to increase efficiency.(Rhodes, 1995) There is a two fold problem in this assumption. First, the issue is seen as how to best allocate enough resources rather than focus on decreasing demand. Little emphasis has been placed on the impending problem that, the use of dams will simply redistribute water supplies; divert systems that were the source of water for rural areas. As water is diverted, as can be seen throughout Morocco, Oasis and other rural areas are left with insufficient resources. Meeting basic needs has become more difficult while economic incentives draw immigrants to the cities further populating the community and encouraging more industry while negatively impacting the environment and ineffectively diverting adequate resources. The growth of cities and the demise of rural townships has simply redirected the problem of meeting water resources needs. At the same time, the impact on the natural environment and social fabric of the country has been significant.

Thomas Rhodes argues that water scarcity is the main reason for Morocco’s urbanization, as farmers unable to pay for new wells are forced to join the rural exodus.(Rhodes, 1995) I believe, however, that it is not necessarily the farmers inability to pay, but rather changes in society and the institutional base that effectively kept demand in check, that resulted in over exploitation and a decreased respect for environmental limits as the value of water has been undermined. Rather than place significant emphasis on local development and water projects that encourage farmers and other rural industries and communities to survive and prosper, the country has reacted to the problems of urbanization by focusing efforts on meeting the social, political, and environmental demands of an expanded population and the immediate need to supply demand in these areas, while decreasing emphasis on managing it for the long-term.

The demise of rural communities and oasis as a result of national water and development policy has created new crisis and vulnerabilities: 1.) the natural environment has been neglected or, in many cases devastated as policy focused on industry and the demands of urban communities. Travels through the desert are interrupted routinely by visions of ruins that were once thriving Oasis supported by rivers that have since been diverted to dams and subsequently, urban communities. 2. Societies have deteriorated leaving those who do not emigrate facing increased hardship as natural, political, and social resources are being diverted to other areas 3. Cultures and traditions that supported rural industry and environmental protection have broken down as a result of social and political change that undermined the importance of diversified communities and rural development and sustainability 4. Many communities that provided a national protective barrier along the boarders and in port regions either, are compromised as their presence no longer provides a buffer to political instability or intrusion.

“The concept of rural development necessarily implies reduction of current disparities between urban and rural areas. Reduction of rural socioeconomic deficiencies is directly related to sustainable water management, whether for irrigation or for domestic and industrial consumption. Necessary measures include:

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  Extension of roadway networks, electrification, and telecommunications; improvement or rural habitats, domestic installations, potable water supplies and sanitation.
  
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  Job creation and anti-poverty campaigns in small rural centers;
  
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  Improvement of sanitation and hygiene;
  
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  Expansion of family planning and spacing of births; and
  
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  Improvement of rates of schooling and other efforts against illiteracy.
  

“Morocco faces various environmental problems, including several arising from natural hazards, most commonly drought.” The main difficulties arise from Morocco’s dependency on water and the economy’s vulnerability to climactic change. Effective water policy must incorporate local realities and established system that support a comprehensive development agenda within the context of nature’s limits. According to Elinor Ostrom, many of the shared conceptions and norms of behavior that are collectively referred to as “culture” have evolved as a form of social capital to counteract opportunistic behavior.”(Ostrom, 1992, 52) “If external authorities attempt to impose rules outside this…it is unlikely that such rules will be followed…investing in new rules is always risky.”(Ostrom, 1992, 52)