Abstract
Abstract. The Draa Oasis in southeastern Morocco is experiencing severe water scarcity, driven by climate change and intensified by the expansion of watermelon agribusiness and desert tourism. This article explores how external investors, empowered by national agricultural policies, have disrupted traditional water governance systems rooted in collective management. Through ethnographic fieldwork involving interviews, focus groups, and spatial mapping, the study examines the socio-environmental consequences of groundwater depletion and land commodification. It argues that investors fail to assume ethical accountability for the ecological degradation they cause, despite being aware of the oasis’s fragile ecosystem. Meanwhile, local communities and civil society actors resist the erosion of communal rights, advocating for sustainable resource use and environmental justice. The paper calls for urgent policy interventions that center local knowledge, reinforce collective rights, and regulate capitalist land and water exploitation in arid regions.
Recommended Citation
El Khatabi, Ahmed
(2024)
"Extractivism and water crisis in the Moroccan Draa Oasis: Global South reflections on responsibility and resistance,"
Journal of Maya Heritage: Vol. 4, Article 4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62915/2995-7427.1020
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/mayaheritage/vol4/iss1/4
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