Drought-Stricken Zagora Faces Water Crisis as Environmental Group Urges Action

An urgent call to the Moroccan authorities. The Association of Friends of the Environment in the province of Zagora has asked the Ministry of the Interior to issue a prefectural decision declaring the province of Zagora as a disaster area due to the drought situation and water scarcity. It also addressed the governor of Zagora. In a correspondence, the association called on the authority to open an investigation into the proliferation of wells in an anarchic manner without respect for legal regulations, which is causing significant waste of scarce water resources. It also pleaded for the issuance of a prefectural decision totally banning the cultivation of watermelon, considered a water-consuming crop and a real danger to water security.

The province of Zagora is suffering from a difficult and worrying water crisis, having gone from a phase of water shortage to a phase of water deficit due to drought, climate change and overexploitation of water resources, which has had a serious and deep impact on the population and the environment, the association said. Worse, the oases have deteriorated, poverty has spread, and misery and unhappiness have invaded all regions, while the population suffers from a severe shortage of water resources, forcing a large part of the inhabitants to migrate, it continued.

The continuation of the cultivation and production of certain fruits that consume large quantities of water resources and their export to European or African countries, among others, in a context of prolonged severe drought that Morocco has been experiencing for six years, is equivalent to "exporting water through agricultural products," observers say. As a result, the depletion of water reserves is intensifying and economic dependence is further developing.