Villages and their Water
This past month in Morocco has been a unique journey for the entire group. Our immersion in the local culture allowed us to get a true sense of how the Berber people of Ifni live. We don’t have the same language, etiquette, or traditions, but our meetings were always lively and I was sad as our last gathering came to an end. That might also have been in part due to a few boys half my age schooling me in a game of soccer. Besides giving us a genuine experience with the locals, our visits have been a remarkable insight into their ingenuity and resourcefulness.
As an engineer, I was fascinated with how the people have adapted to live in such a harsh climate. I realized more and more that this project is so difficult because the people we are trying to help have already worked hard to help themselves. They have taken advantage of most of the water resources available to them and still suffer from a scarcity of water. Below are some typical water collection and storage systems we saw in the villages. The pictures aren’t quite as remarkable as the stunning views of clouds rolling in from the Moroccan coast and breaking upon our mountaintop, but I still find them very interesting.
A large portion of a family’s water might come from a cistern like this one. Cisterns vary widely in size, depending on the wealth of the family. This is a small one with a 12 cubic meter capacity. When it rains, water forms natural gullies due to the mountainous terrain. After it has rained long enough for a gully to be clear of much of the dirt and debris, it is diverted to the cistern.
In front of any gully cistern you will see a smaller concrete basin like this one, with a channel running into the cistern. Diverted water runs into the basin where the larger particles settle out quickly and the cleaner water flows into the cistern. Municipal water treatment systems use settling tanks to treat water as well, though on a much larger scale.
Here’s a glimpse of the inside of the cistern. It has not rained for a while so the water level is fairly low. If the cistern runs out of water during the dry season and not enough water can be brought from surrounding wells, the family will be forced to buy water that is trucked in. In these poor villages the cost of trucked water is a large portion of their monthly income. The walls of the cistern are white because they are painted with crushed limestone mixed with water. The limestone helps to clean the water stored in the cistern.
The other common type of cistern collects rain water from the roof and stores it underneath the house. In the pictured system, no surface is wasted. Even the sloped courtyard of the house collected water. You can see the drain between the top of the cistern and the courtyard where water falls after flowing over the courtyard.
The house had a number of sections. The roof of each one was sloped toward a drain and a system of pipes carried the water towards the main roof where it fell into the house’s cistern.
These examples only pertain to the water problem facing the region. People here have tackled all sorts of problems with clever solutions. Argan and prickly pear cooperatives have helped economic growth while thick-walled buildings keep out the blistering heat. Our project has benefited significantly from the knowledge and cooperation of the local people. By working with them we’ve incorporated their wisdom into our work and enjoyed an incredible experience at the same time.
