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Post Colonial Figuig

Local institutions that provided social, political, and legal cohesion and continuity were dissolved replaced by processes consistent with other communities. The new bureaucratic administration followed policies and procedures designed by the national political establishment in Rabat. While the legal structure incorporated a newly appointed community judge to administer the law that supported local precedent the institutions that perpetuated and developed norms and procedures, as the law was uncodified, could not inform the new system. Subsequently, a society that developed important institutions to support its needs, and was concomitantly influenced by these found itself disassociated. Moreover, the important changes that were taking place on the social, political and legal front could not be mitigated by a cohesive community and supporting institutions. Rather, the new system was characterized by control and fragmentation as opposed to cooperation and balance.(Figuig Interviews, 2005)

As the Water Council no longer existed, the water resources management system and corresponding social and political institutional balance no longer supported a water culture. As the newly established administrative system applied rules and processes, and was unable or unwilling to effectively incorporate history, tradition and social value that supported the needs and goals of the community. The value and subsequent influence of water in supporting the evolution of an effective, balanced governance system was not adequately incorporated into the new management system.

Further, the impact of the French departure was immediately felt upon the definition and closure of the Algerian border. It divided the “country of Figuig” in half, as much of it extended to its bordering neighbor country. This severed its main commerce routes and deprived many families from access to their farm lands that lay beyond the border. Figure 14 shows Figuig, today, and the city of Beni Ounif, in modern Algeria (seen between the two mountains), which was an integral part of Figuig, now out of reach as a result of the border closure.

Figure 14: The other side of the border

On the economic front, the construction of roads and other infrastructure improvements brought the region, logistically, closer to national and international commercial trading zones. This dramatically influenced the local economy. While it facilitated import and export—its limited resources could not allow for a dramatic increase in productivity to keep up with a new level of demand for local products. Goods could, now, be more easily imported. However, as the caravan trade was interrupted by the closure of the Algerian border making Figuig the “end of the road” as opposed to a “stop” along the route it became increasingly economically isolated.

Modern industries that were previously unknown to the local populations were created in Algeria and throughout Morocco. Subsequently, demand for labor in urban areas of Algeria, Morocco and France created an outflow of the most able men from Figuig and other rural areas. As a result the farms remained in the hands of elders, women and children. Local artisans closed shop due to the lack of merchants passing through and the influx of imported goods and the lack of able labor available to replace older workers. Many of the functions and traditions that were transferred from generation to generation for hundreds of years were quickly lost to history.(Figuig Interviews, 2005)

Those who emigrated to France left families in Figuig, behind, sending earnings home to support the farms that had survived independently for generations. A new social class with significant relative wealth was born. A new culture that parted with sophist traditions found new report for wealth. Their dramatically increased buying power, allowed emigrants to afford luxuries that were traditionally foreign to Figuig. Moreover, this new wealth, in combination with new attitudes, and a limited appreciation for conservative resource use and a lack of important institutions to encouraged behaviors that supported the environment and sustainability brought about unchecked development. The fragile supply and demand balance that had sustained Figuig throughout its history was dramatically offset. Most resources mainly land and water had been priced according to local salaries. With this new found wealth people built larger houses on the outskirts of the city, dug wells and planted imported crops that were not native to Figuig, including bananas and pistachios.

As the urban centers of Morocco were witnessing explosive developments, during the decades of the sixties through eighties, many families left Figuig, the majority settling in Oujda and Casablanca. Many farms were abandoned and most shops closed. Figuig’s population included mainly elders and families that did not have the means to emigrate. As emigrants to both France and urban Morocco maintained strong ties to Figuig, the population of Figuig swelled during vacation seasons and holidays.

The central government of Morocco kept infrastructure projects in Figuig to a strict minimum as the King continued to express his displeasure with the population of Figuig for traditionally not demonstrating the expected allegiance to the throne. The community struggled with the loss of their cultural heritage of independence. Many in the community were implicated in an arms smuggling ring that brought weapons from Algeria to support the failed uprising of 1973 against the King. King Hassan II conducted a ruthless military sweep across Morocco, Figuig endured particularly harsh treatment.

The emigration out of Figuig slowed dramatically in the eighties and nineties in the midst of a national economic recession. A growing backlash against immigrants from North Africa, by the French, further changed the climate for expatriates. As a result, the community of Figuig was reorganized to stimulate the local economy and revive the culture that was repressed for some time. New cultural centers to teach new trades and promote local crafts were established. A number of individuals, mostly retiring from work abroad, created new modern farm cooperatives on the outskirts of Figuig that established new water systems supported by a program that sought alternative water sources within the community.

With a lack of institutional supports embedded in history and tradition that perpetuated knowledge of appropriate farming techniques and water conservation farmers and other land owners have begun to exploit the new water source inefficiently. Farming techniques that rely on excessive water use are imposing new stresses on a limited supply of water resources. While the ground water source may be distinct from the springs the hydrologic system is burdened by a lack of sufficient institutions and social controls to support culture of conservation, thus sustainability among all water users.

While Figuig’s population has since remained relatively constant the community, with little commercial viability of its own, has changed while the underlying governance institutions that allowed it to survive for so many generations have been neglected or disbanded. The challenge to maintain a balance among social, cultural, technological, political and environmental interests has become a central issue. There is speculation that the balance that allowed for a sustainable community and environment for so long has been offset to the point of no return and many are concerned about the prospects of the Oasis’ survival.

After the death of King Hassan II in 1999, his son Mohammed VI made a historical gesture by visiting Figuig to show that the wrath of the throne had passed. As a result Figuig was named to the list of endangered National Heritage Sites and funds and increased attention were, subsequently, allocated by the government to support a process of reviving the community and preserving the Oasis. Today Figuig and Rabat are working, though with meager resources, to solve the problem of water by looking to alternative water sources and reviving the use of effective water institutions to support effient water use.(Ait Kadi Interview, 2005).

Figuig’s rich history and culture, and political and physical independence, along with its complex social and technological structures in a natural environment with scarce water resources proved sustainable for millennia. An understanding of its successes and failures in maintaining sustainable institutions and physical systems that allowed the community to survive in such a fragile environment and its subsequent demise is important to us on many fronts. The oasis of Figuig, consequently, presents itself as a compelling story to learn from and an important one to tell. In this case we have chosen to focus on the underlying issues supporting or detracting for sustainable water resources management institutions.