Morocco’s Ancient Oases Face Extinction as Climate Change Advances Desert

"The threat of the disappearance of the oases is very real," warns Mohamed El Houkari, an association worker, in the face of the disaster. At 53 years old, this resident agent of Skoura, a town with some 25,000 inhabitants, has lived with his family in this region populated by oases, which have gradually disappeared over the years due to the scarcity of water.

The oases, once bulwarks against desertification, are under the "threat of disappearance due to the considerable impact of high temperatures on water resources," according to an alert from the NGO [Greenpeace], reports AFP.

According to official data, Morocco has already lost 14 million palm trees over the past centuries. The activities carried out around the oases are based on groundwater resources, but they have been slowed down by the climate warming of the 1980s-1990s, reveals the Dean of the Faculty of [Ouarzazate], Lahcen El Maimouni, during the conference on solidarity tourism in the oases.

"But the drought has destroyed everything," sighs Mohamed El Houkari, deploring the high cost of the electric pumps used to extract water from the ground. Now, the depth to reach to find water is 40 meters; what was about 7 to 10 meters in the 1980s, according to residents.

The rehabilitation of the oasis greenery is a concern for the National Agency for the Development of Oasis Zones and the Argan Tree (ANDZOA). As early as 2008, this structure launched a "major tree planting program of three million trees, an objective achieved in 2019," assures Brahim Hafidi, director of the agency.

At the beginning of January, the National Drinking Water Supply and Irrigation Program for 2020-2027 was launched, with a budget of around 10.9 billion euros.