After the rhetoric of officials continued to move towards saying that “Morocco is experiencing structural water stress and a difficult period of drought,” Ahmed Reda Shami, President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, spoke before a group of journalists and attendees in Rabat, describing the drought as “structural,” which means that it has become a norm. It could “swamp official efforts that attempt to limit catastrophic water-related scenarios, especially in light of the dramatic decline in the capacity of dams.”
The researchers captured Al-Shami’s word with a kind of “blame for the public political actor, who cannot interact with God’s will regarding precipitation except through supplication and supplication.” But he could have put forward real political visions that would preserve the national reserve of surface and groundwater,” especially since “the situation today has confirmed the continuation of drought for a long-term period.” The repercussions will be dangerous for Moroccan water security.”
Between the rule and the default
Rashid Faseh, a water researcher, pointed out that drought has actually turned into “a rule after it was an exception that Morocco experienced every ten years since the 1970s,” adding: “Drought has become a structural water stress, as precipitation rates decline year after year until the injection of dams declines.” Pointing out “the role of climate change that the world has become aware of with unprecedented severity in this drought, especially in its alliance with the mismanagement of water resources at the political level and the failure to implement plans effectively.”
Faseh, in his statement to Hespress, explained that “the current water crisis lacked a previous management vision, because expectations for many years were based on a map alerting us to the scarcity and scarcity we have reached today,” considering that “successive governments are incapable of making a future forecast of what it has become.” The situation, in addition to the significant failure to address this issue through policies that accelerate major projects announced in this regard; We did not intensify efforts until after the King personally intervened.”
The same speaker likened managing the water crisis to the work of firefighters, “that is, we did not intervene until after the disaster, and we did not deal with the required seriousness with the problem of water resources until it became clear to us that the future was blurry and the scenarios were getting darker,” pointing to “the structural and structural situation of the drought phenomenon, which brought us closer to The politician is one of the ideas that was discussed by specialists and researchers, and not taking expectations seriously.”
“Lack of charisma”
Mustafa Al-Aissat, a water researcher, mentioned “the absence of real studies, research and follow-up, which is based on an inevitable idea in our diagnosis of reality; “And that is that we lack a policy based on planning goals, which has made the political actor’s dealing with the problem of water stress take on the character of crisis management more than anything else.” He continued: “The irregularity of rainfall has been clear for years, but with our agricultural policy and our poor management of water reserves, we have made water security dependent.” “With the fog.”
In a tone resembling a protest, Al-Aissat spoke about “the absence of future strategic political planning, which is an essential element in managing public affairs,” and he added, explaining: “This absence is due to the absence of charisma in the political field.” The politician lacks sufficient courage to develop forward-looking policies, given the existing tension between the partisan actor and the expert. Politicians have dismissed researchers’ warnings that were launched 20 years ago, warning not to harm groundwater, especially in the southern regions.”
In addition, the same researcher dismantled “the political discourse that now relies on water as political bidding, but the holders and promoters of this discourse are considered one of the reasons for mismanagement over the last twenty years that led us to this situation,” pointing to “the Marrakesh Climate Summit that Moroccan politicians attended, but they contributed Later in wasting development time,” he added: “Things are clear, and the structural situation of drought calls for structural interventions and accelerating time to desalinate water.”