The Mouth of the Jebel Bani Mountains: Traditional Water Management at the Edge of the Sahara

ABSTRACT

Along the southern Morocco-Algeria border runs the Jebel Bani mountain range, a feature that marks the edge of the Anti-Atlas mountain region and the beginning of the Sahara Desert. The area receives little annual rainfall and has almost no surface water. Despite the dry environment, there is a string of agricultural oases that use ancient underground technology to access groundwater. The khettara system (qanat) has allowed for life in this arid landscape for centuries but is currently facing rapid abandonment, and the oases are subsequently struggling to survive. This project, a community-based archaeological survey of the khettara oases along the Jebel Bani, demonstrates how modern irrigation practices are undermining the resilience and sustainability of Saharan oases and emphasizes the importance of traditional water management practices. This project provides a new avenue for understanding the diffusion, use, and abandonment of the khettara oasis systems and other traditional water management systems worldwide.

KEYWORDS:

• Khettara
• water management
• archaeology
• community-based research
• Morocco
• traditional irrigation
• oasis agriculture
• traditional ecological knowledge

Acknowledgments:

I wish to thank my Fulbright Affiliates Mostapha Nokraoui and Hassan Adounouh of L’association Anbdour et Imi n’tTizeght pour le développement et la cooperation (AIDECO) in Imi N'Tizeght, Tafroute; PhD candidates Abdoulah Saadi and Jannet Chehbouni as well as Dr. Cherif Harrouni of the University of Ibn Zohr; Hassan Elmrani of the Centre d'Etudes Oasiennes, Jorf; the Miftah Essad Foundation for the Intangible Heritage of Morocco, Rabat; Louise Rayne and her team from the University of Newcastle; academic advisers Frances Hayashida and Emily Jones from the University of New Mexico and Dale Lightfoot from Oklahoma State University; and the hundreds upon hundreds of farmers, local community members, and water management researchers throughout Morocco without whom this project would not have been possible. Thank you, shukran bizaf, tanmirt!

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics Statement

All research practices involving community members were conducted through the Institutional Review Board process at the University of New Mexico.

Geolocation

This research took place throughout the Jebel Bani region of Morocco. The Jebel Bani stretches along the border between Morocco and Algeria. It marks the edge of the Anti-Atlas mountain region and the beginning of the Sahara Desert.

Additional information

Funding

The author acknowledges financial support for this project by the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the Moroccan-American Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange (MACECE). Additional funding was providedd by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), Santa Fe New Mexico Chapter, and the American Institute of Maghreb Studies (AIMS). The results of this research are solely the author’s responsibility and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Fulbright Program, AIMS, AAUW, the Government of the United States, or MACECE.

Notes on contributors

Emily Hayes-Rich

Emily Hayes-Rich holds an M.S. in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico and a B.A. in History from Lewis & Clark College. She received a Fulbright Research Grant and an American Institute of Maghreb Studies Award to research the khettara (qanat) traditional water management system. In general, her research focuses on the importance of traditional knowledge as a way of mitigating the effects of climate change in rural arid and semi-arid communities around the world. She has conducted archaeological research and professional work across seven U.S. states in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest, South Korea, Australia, and Morocco.