Small-Scale Irrigation in a Multiethnic Oasis Environment: the Case of Zaouit Amelkis Village, Southeast Morocco

Abstract

This paper examines the social organization of a small-scale irrigation system in a multiethnic setting in the Ziz Valley, southeast Morocco. It is focused on the analysis of the Zaouit Amelkis village irrigation system and its management. The village of Zaouit Amelkis paints a complex historical and ecological picture where ethnicity, power, and religious ideology function to manage local resources. This paper claims that the traditional land owning groups, Arabs and Berbers have, over time, extorted labor from the landless, low-status group, the Haratine, for the operation and maintenance of the village’s irrigation system.

Key words: ethnicity, water management, land tenure, Southeast Morocco.