Politics of Desertification in Southern Morocco: the disappearing oasis of M’hamid El Ghizlane

Only a few words carry as much poetic imagery as the term “oasis”. As a garden in the desert, it symbolizes lush amongst aridity, life amidst emptiness. It is a place where gazelles and goats run their way through a fertile valley made of lavish palm trees reflecting themselves in shimmering waters, where nomad tribes come to rest and replenish their food and water supplies before continuing their journey through the dunes of Northern Africa. It is a place for brief encounters and prosperous trade, a place where stories are shared and promesses are made.

Once teeming with people, the old souk is now abandoned and buried in the sand.

A few decades ago, the oasis of M'hamid was a privileged place for trade. It was prosperous thanks to its abundant production of fruits and vegetables and its strategic location for caravans. It now heavily relies on tourism. Camel treks in the desert are the most popular tours.

The moving border of the Sahara

From a fertile valley to a dry desert

A native of M’hamid El Ghizlane – an oasis town facing the dunes of the Moroccan Sahara –, Ali remembers with nostalgia this picture-perfect environment. He grew up as a nomad and a shepherd, spending a vast amount of time wandering the beautiful emptiness of the neighbouring Sahara. He easily navigates in this peculiar environment, which he loves dearly. Just like a white page, the desert is a land where the imagination can run completely free. Yet, he can’t help but worry about the future of the oasis. In the last twenty years, the Sahara has kept coming closer to the village – gaining about one kilometre according to Ali –, pushing away its inhabitants and threatening their livelihoods.

A landscape of desolation

Today, the waving horizon of sandy dunes has replaced the infinite silhouettes of date-palms and fruit trees. The old and the new M’hamid face each other on the banks of the Drâa, connected by a bridge that now crosses over sand, not water. In both sides of the dry river, traditional kasbahs are half-buried in the burning sand. Nature seems to be thoroughly fighting to claim back its territory as it has become hostile – almost vengeful – over the years. Sand storms are frequent, filling in-house patios with orange dunes and turning agricultural parcels into dry land. Once a land of wildlife – M’hamid El Ghizlane is also called “the gazelles plain” –, the surrounding landscape is now consistently arid. The local dam is no longer active, for there is no water to retain anymore. The lakes have dried up, leaving a hint of their past existence in the form of strange patterns covering the dehydrated soil. What’s to blame? Global warming? As convenient and trending as this answer would be, the truth lies elsewhere.

An old well, still connected to potable water, is abandoned in the middle of a former farmland. With the modernisation of agricultural techniques leading to higher farming costs and the increasing alphabetisation rate, the number of peasants has severely declined over the years. Yet, cultivating the land is the best way to prevent desertification.

Not that long ago, M'hamid was fulled of wild gazelles. Today, the landscape has changed. Ever since the construction of the Ouarzazate dam, the wide lake that watered the plain has gradually dried up. Its surroundings, once fertile, have become arid.

The old M'hamid dam is no longer running. The water is now retained 260km away, at the upstream of the Drâa Valley in the Ouarzazate dam and reservoirs.

All around M'hamid, abandoned kasbahs are half-buried in the burning sand.

The soil that was once at the bottom of the lake is now dry and dehydrated. It absorbs the sweltering heat, draws strange patterns and crunches like snow when stepped upon.

The lack of water is even more problematic for agriculture. The region of M'hamid is equipped with an important system of seguias connected to the Ouarzazate dam. The water flows only three to four times a year, in very limited quantities. It is not enough to irrigate the farming lands.

When water policies make the land drier: the impact of clean energy on desertification

The region started to experience droughts with the construction of the El Manson Eddahbi dam in the early 1970s. Located about twenty kilometres away from Ouarzazate, at the upstream section of the Drâa river, it retains about 560 millions of meter cubes of water thanks to its ambitious system of reservoirs. Its primary goals were to generate hydraulic electricity and regulate the distribution of water throughout the Drâa Valley so that every village could get the water it needed in order to cultivate its land. As clever as the idea seems, the reality has not met the expectations. Being the last oasis of the valley, M’hamid El Ghizlane saw its amount of water severely decline ever since the dam has been functioning. The canals, once irrigating a vast acreage, now remain dry most of the time. Water is timidly flowing for a few days only three to four times a year, depending on the quantity of rain that fell over the Atlas. Far from covering the farming needs of the village, this regulation has led to food insecurity in the area. A situation that is made worse by Moroccan customary law, which states that the upstream always prevails over the downstream.

A water reservoir is installed in front of the Old M'hamid mosque. Every house of the village is connected to potable water, but there is not enough of it for everyone. It is common to run out of water around noon.

M'hamid is surrounded by agricultural parcels. Lots of them are abandoned and left to the desert. Old wells and low walls can be spotted under newly-shaped dunes.

M'hamid sometimes feels like a ghost town. Fleeing the heat and drought, more and more inhabitants move to Marrakech or Casablanca in the hope of better job opportunities and a more solid education for their children. Meanwhile, the sand is sneaking in the abandoned houses.

Economic development as a factor of desertification

Alphabetisation and rural exodus

The droughts that have experienced the locals did result in a more challenging work environment for peasants. But it doesn’t entirely explain why so many parcels have been abandoned. The land is still fertile, and a few farms successfully cultivate crops in M’hamid. Most of the fields that are now dry and covered in sand are equipped with wells that are connected to potable water. Yet, no one even considers using them anymore. Like anywhere else in the world, an increasing alphabetisation rate has encouraged rural exodus in Morocco. People leave the land of their ancestors seeking job opportunities in the ever-growing cities, fleeing drought and extreme heat or wishing to give their children a better education. A disappearing oasis at the doors of the Sahara cannot compete with the dynamism of modern metropolises like Marrakech or Casablanca.

As much as rural exodus is emptying M'hamid, there are still a few kids playing in the streets. Due to the proximity of the Algerian border, M'hamid hosts a big barracks where soldiers have settled with their families.

The local school is facing the threatening Sahara, which dunes get closer to the entrance door each year.

In the backyard of the Director's house, old school furniture are piled up next to the unwanted dunes.

Amongst the omniscient silence of M'hamid, the heart of the village is still beating. Sandy streets give an immense sense of freedom to the local kids.

The profitable business of unsustainable agriculture

The remaining peasants of M’hamid El Ghizlane play a crucial role in stopping the progression of the desert. Cultivating the land is the best way to prevent desertification, but it requires an investment not everyone can afford. Modern agricultural techniques come with higher costs as the wells now work with an electric pump or solar panels. In the neighbouring region of Zagora, farmers have found a way to make their land quite profitable. They benefit from the worldwide fame of Zagora watermelons, a species that’s widely appreciated for its sweet and refreshing taste. The demand is so high that almost every farmer switched their crops to watermelons, leading to an all-year-round monoculture that’s extremely water-demanding, as each watermelon requires more than a ton of water to fully grow. This intensive and unsustainable agricultural model is emptying the groundwaters, when Morocco is already planned to become a “chronically water-stressed” country by 2020 according to the World Bank.

The center of M'hamid still has a few shops running. Most of them are tourism agencies selling tours in the Sahara. Being at the door of the desert, the village is only a quick stop for passing tourists.

A camel driver takes its camel back to the run where it will spend the night, after a day in the desert with a group of tourists.

In the late afternoon, football games gather almost all men of the village. This moment of happiness is sometimes interrupted by sand storms, fairly common in M'hamid.

A woman is resting in her house after energetically cleaning it. Despite her careful precautions, the sand entered her home during the sand storm that occurred earlier that day.

M'hamid inhabitants hurry up as the wind is blowing sand in the air. They are used to barricading themselves in their houses to prevent the sand from getting into their homes.

Most of M'hamid inhabitants come from families of nomads. They wear traditional blue dresses and cheichs, like people of the desert.

Over the last decades, the Sahara has significantly gained ground in the Drâa Valley. The ongoing desertification has been induced by human activities – political decisions, social development and economic growth – and made worse by climatic dynamics: the more arid a piece of land is, the less rain it is likely to receive. As water management becomes a very sensitive topic in the MENA region and in Morocco, both international and local policies will have to address the issue. Building smaller, locally managed dams to collect rainwater, helping aspiring farmers to buy modern agricultural equipment such as solar panels and regulating single-crop farming are only a few examples of bottom-up approaches that are definitely worth digging into. After all, if men are the cause of desertification, they should be able to revert the tendency. ■

Agricultural techniques are still traditional in M'hamid, and donkeys are actively involved.

Despite the ongoing desertification, the land is still fertile when cultivated. The most prosperous farms are equipped with solar panels that pump water from the wells, thus ensuring an even irrigation of the cultures. If local farmers had enough means to buy them, they would be better armed to win the battle they're fighting against the moving sands of the Sahara.