Indigenous water management amid global changes: Reviving ancient Oasis irrigation systems in Southeastern Morocco

The Khettara system is an ancient hydraulic infrastructure designed to collect and transport groundwater by gravity from the water table to irrigate oasis fields. This energy-efficient system, widely used in North Africa, particularly in Algeria (Foggara) and Morocco (Khettara), is celebrated for its sustainability and its potential to enhance drought resilience and combat desertification. Established as early as the 14th century, the Khettara system continues to function, despite facing significant natural and anthropogenic challenges. In Morocco, the indigenous water mobilization technique is found in two major oasis ecosystems in southern Morocco: Drâa and Tafilalet designated as the Biosphere Reserve (RBOSM) by UNESCO in 2000. Around these millennia-old agrosystems, successive civilizations developed resource management and governance practices, particularly in water allocation. Known as Al Orf or Azref, these regulations emphasize the protection, maintenance, and sustainable use of water resources where precipitation ranges from 50 to 120 mm per year. However, since the 1970s, the Khettara system has been in decline due to competition from motorized and solar-powered pumps, worsening droughts, and the migration of younger generations away from agriculture. This shift has led to growing inequality, individualism, and a breakdown in the collective labor and governance structures that sustained the system for centuries. Modern technologies, while initially promising, have proven unsustainable in many cases. In response, the Moroccan government undertook initiatives between 2008 and 2011 to restore certain abandoned Khettarat in the Tafilalet oases, integrating them into cultural tourism routes, particularly the Mejhoul circuit. This initiative, although still nascent, offers a promising pathway for collaboration among local communities (nomads, oasis inhabitants, and cooperative associations), researchers (hydrologists and hydro-sociologists), and stakeholders (local water policymakers and the tourism sector). Such efforts aim to preserve and revitalize this cultural and environmental heritage, which remains at risk.