Clean Drinking Water for 1250 Villagers in Morocco

This project seeks to build water access points and basins and install equipment in the rural commune of Jrifia, and to revive the ancient wells which distinguish the local region. The proposed budget would enable the construction of six wells for the benefit of 7,800 households in Albadia nomadic communities and 3,500 fishermen in two rural fishing villages in the Province of Boujdour. 

According to the local population, one-third of the local people’s income can be spent on water. As their main economic activity is animal husbandry and fishing, the communities do not have the funds to construct the necessary infrastructure. The local people see this water project as their first priority, identified during participatory planning processes. Access to drinking water reduces rates of infant mortality and illness and increases school attendance of children, particularly girls, as well as people’s energy levels. Furthermore, this project aims to build the capacity of the local people through the enhancement of skills and knowledge in utilizing, managing, and conserving water sources and protecting the environment. This project will implement health and hygiene awareness workshops to enhance the health status of the communities living in marginalized isolated fishing and nomadic rural villages. 

This project will also build a canal to enable animals to drink and thus benefit the larger community. The targeted beneficiaries are approximately 600 cattle breeders in the province in Boujdour and neighboring provinces who come to the area in search of pastures. This project will also impact 18,000 camels and 110,000 goats and sheep as well as tourists and nomadic families.   

This project also includes the construction of a water tower in the Amziouat community members who face a lack of water. Providing access to clean drinking water by way of a water tower would go a long way in supporting an influx of tourism to the area as well as improving current community members’ quality of life. Also, inadequate sanitary facilities in Amziouat lead to a considerable amount of pollution of the beaches as well as the ocean itself. The economic impact is considerable as there is a decline in tourism and a decrease in traditional fishing practices as a result. HAF plans to address these challenges through a project that aims to protect the environment and prevent pollution by building sanitary facilities for women and men. It will benefit sailors, schools (students and teachers), visitors, tourists, and seaweed collectors. 

On day two of our visit to Tiznit, the first stop was a school in a rural community that desired funding to improve its water infrastructure. The school has been working on improving the conditions of the school, with having new buildings and creating an agricultural presence on its school grounds. During the visit, I was able to witness a proposition that HAF has to consider whether it meets the conditions to receive funding. 

We learned that with the partnership with HAF, the school had planted trees and is currently tending to them. The existing water infrastructure at the school is a well. However, the well is not operated through a solar panel water pump, so money is needed to be invested into the well after it is in place. There is a local spring, which the school has access to every ten days. They have traditional Amazigh water infrastructure in place that allows them to direct the water to the plants.

Since there is no infrastructure in place for them to store the water they utilize flood irrigation to water the plants. The school was asking for HAF to invest in their school's agriculture and water infrastructure, which would be a plan that would total around 30,000 USD. This puts HAF into a position in which it should allocate money for the school to improve its water infrastructure. 

During the tour around the school, we were informed about the current conditions of the water infrastructure and the desires the school admin had for the future of the program.

During the presentation, I was wondering where the profits from the fruit product are placed. Whether all of the funding is reinvested into the school, where it can be directed to the school. Which could potentially allow the school to stop having to charge the students for their transportation to school. Despite the profits only being directed to the school, schools are a key aspect of communities and development. Schools possessing monetary streams aid communities as a whole.

Education allows for young community members to increase their skill set, which opens up opportunities for them and the community as a whole. This made me believe that it would be a nice allocation of resources for HAF. 

Visiting this school illustrated to me the difficult choices that HAF has to make when they are deciding where to place funding and the numerous conditions they have to consider. An important aspect that was pointed out that had to be determined for a decision for funding to be made was whether the members of the community wanted the investment in agriculture, or if it was solely the school’s administration who wanted the new water infrastructure.

The children can not be responsible for tending to the trees, so this requires community members to participate in the care of the trees. If the members of the community do not have an interest or an incentive to maintain the trees, then HAF providing water infrastructure to be able to care for more trees would be an illogical allocation of their resources.

Also knowing whether the community would be interested in the improvement of the water infrastructure at the school would have to be taken into account when making the decision. The community is not only needed because they would be a necessary aspect for maintaining the trees, but also the community is also a part of the rotation for access to the spring water.

If the school creates the infrastructure to store spring water, they will utilize more of the spring water during the days they have access to it. This could lead to the spring water supply decreasing, as more of the water is removed from the supply. These factors are necessary to consider when deciding whether HAF should invest in improving the water infrastructure of the school. This illustrates the difficult decisions that are necessary for development foundations to make. It would be difficult for me to deny people access to a constant supply of water, but when resources are scarce foundations must make difficult decisions that would lead to the most benefit.