S2 EP8: Water commons in the Draa Valley - how do you share a precious resource?

The Draa valley in Southern Morocco is one of the driest places on Earth and getting drier. Paul talks to local residents and farmers about a system of sharing  water that has been operating for over 500 years - a longstanding example of a successful "commons". In a world where access to scarce resources is leading to conflict, commons may offer insights about achieving more sustainable and equitable approaches to sharing our planet. Researcher Sabina Pedrazzini explains what psychological factors can contribute to the success of a commons. 

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Transcript

PHJ: Hi – and welcome back to Mind, Brain and Planet – where I’m continuing my travels in Morrocco. I’ve taken a bus further south and left the crazy noise and bustle of Marrakesh behind me.  I’m now at Agdz in the middle of the Dra Valley. The main business here is agriculture but the Dra valley ranks in the world’s top 10 most arid river basins, with rainfall down to just 3 cms a year in the south. The Draa river that runs through this valley heads South, before turning West towards the Atlantic – but it rarely reaches the sea before it dries up. Lately groundwater levels here have been getting lower, and rainfall has become less dependable – as my guide Alami explained…

Alami: The problem it starts from 2017 is a dry season. This dry season she is going for seven years. It's finished just September 2024. For seven years we don't have a lot of rain. Seven years maybe you have like four or four or five times rain. Maybe it's only one time per year and that is not enough and after that it's the big problem for this valley. No water, no life. 

PHJ: To have so many years without rain is that unusual? 

Alami: Of course, of course normally that's because the people here it's agriculture people and the people live with oasis or life it's with oasis and this life you can see it's from 500 years ago the wishes for people is agriculture and animals and after if no water, no agricultures, no food for people, no food for animals.

In the last 2 years, some rain has fallen, but only in the last few weeks has the drought officially ended – and the crops are now looking good. Alami explained how, using a 3-level system, each oasis manages to grow amazing fruit and vegetables.  At the lowest level are the cereals and vegetables, over which fruit trees grow, over which palms grow - with the palms central to providing the shelter and soil structure required for all the other crops to flourish.

There is first level there where they grow like there we have wheat and maybe alfalfa and corn some vegetable of the season like for wintertime there is a vegetable for summertime there is another vegetable that's the first level and we have second level it's a little bit high it's with fruit tree like palm granite, almond, apricot, figs, apples. 

Because there's a beautiful smell of almond here - is that is that almond? 

Almond yeah it's the first tree flowering in a year's hair it's flowering in February that's the second level the third one the height one it's the palm tree with the delicious dates of course we have more than 120 types of dates here the number one is called the Majhul and the second one it is Fagus. Majhul it's the big one and the brown one it's very delicious. 

Drawing in the dust with a stick, Alami told me how the Ouarzazate dam up stream is supposed to be opened regularly to ensure water flows through the old traditional canals. Rules dictate how the many canals to each village are opened in a sequence to allow every traditional farm to receive its water.   

Alami: And this dam here is in Ouarzazate it's built in 1972 and then after they can open the dam maybe two three four times per year to give the water for the valley the dravali and after the people here use that water for making irrigation. A lot of canal is more than IT canal of irrigation and some canal it's for two village some canal it's for three village some canal is it only for one village but when the the the valley starts that's first ways and second ways and third ways or fourth one they don't can touch the water of the river all this canal is closed because the water they need to go first to the end of the valley because if these 80 canals open the water never come at the end of the valley 

PHJ: because it might dry up 

Alami: yeah yeah and after when the water come to the end of the valley and after they can start open one by one to the top here 

PHJ: and when is the next opening of the dam?

Alami: Next opening inshallah it's maybe tomorrow or maybe today for us maybe we can see the water in the river the river it's near here. It's just 400 meter or 350 meter. Tomorrow we have the water inshallah in that rivers yeah 

However, the dams, initially built with agriculture in mind, now have new demands on them – including for tourism and a massive Solar Energy project called NOOR – which all means less water to go round.

Alami: That is because of the dry season yeah and there is no more waters and there is another big problem before the dam they build it to protect it the valley from the inundation and to and to preserve the water for the for the dry seasons but after that's water it's not for the dry season that after it's going for the big projects like golfing in Ouzazarte, like the biggest hotel with swimming pool and there is another project it's from 10 years now it's the project of Noor - its energy solar and this project of the energy solar they need a lot of water and after they maybe 65 percent of the of the water from the dam it's go to the dust projects not to the oasis automatically this is the way they open to time per year not four or five times per year

PHJ: And so some traditional farmers have taken things into their hands and suck their own wells to access the already decreasing groundwater underneath their farms. Diesel is too expensive to run the pumps these wells need, so some improvisation is necessary.

Alami: So and that is one that's an example where you heard it - here it's a motor from the car and you can go to see it. And it's with maybe a Peugot car or might be Renault  car and then with the gas pot and with that new solution we pump any water and it stopped to use the visual pump 

PHJ: So this ump is a pump run by a car engine based using gas 

Alami: Gas yes you're coming to see it yeah

With typical Moroccan hospitality, I was invited by the those working at this homemade pumping station to share their breakfast – which involved dipping bread into a mixture of cream cheese and local honey and olive oil – and it was very tasty.  

PHJ: So we've just had breakfast with a lovely family yeah and you're telling me that families sometimes help each other is that right?

Alami: yes normally we start a new years of agriculture and the people after there is a hard work and they turn the earth normally almost one you do it by hand and there is some land it's go for 700 meter curry and maybe 800 meters curry and for one person or two it's really hard they can take like five days to turn this earth we make groups like from five family or six family and we work together we cooperate we work today for that family and then after finish today maybe next day it's for another family everyone can grow what they want someone with someone called someone alfalfa but when there is a hard work we cooperate with each togethers yes also we still this this this work between the family it's come from many years ago and it still continues. Because everyone they need to help the others yes

Rather than divide communities, the need for everyone to access water has, in the past, helped feed this sense of cooperation. Unlike the new private system created by pumping water from the ground, the ancient system of opening and closing canals on a circular schedule requires more negotiation and communication. A traditional assembly of elders also helps organise the fair distribution of water and the collaborative efforts to maintain the canals – but the basic contract for this ancient system is 500 years old, its comes with the land and is inherited with it.

Alami: because we have two system new system and that's new one it's private system it means pumping water and the water come from the ground yeah that's its private system and the family they can use use the public canal and the guiding water to her land that's it's private but for example when use a traditional system is the second one but normally is the old one it's from 500 years when the the water come from the river by public canal there is a circle system between the family right for example some family have five hours or some family have two hours someone have six hours with how many land you have clear maybe my family have five hours we have one land here and maybe other land in 200 meters salaam alaikum and the other land we it's in 600 meters we have six five hours we can guide water to irrigate it first land and after we close the the the canal and the water for this land and we taken by public canal water to the other land one by one when they finish six hours five hours for us the other family is take the water they come directly for example it may be finished in 12 o'clock they close the water for us and guide water for them when they finish maybe three hours of the other family there is another one waiting to close water for them and maybe one circle it's finished in five days because there is maybe 60 family in my village first circle finished in five days we start again another circle and also it's continued that's its circle system in the past it's also it's years by years day by day it's also continued like this it's decided from 500 years ago because there is many family and they have a reunion between the family maybe from 500 years ago and after with how many land you have and then how many hours you have so it's all on the basis of the size of the land yeah and also that system is go generation by generation years by years and normally we don't can change it the family of Muhammad have five hours from 500 years still have five hours at today the family of Ibrahim have two hours from 500 years ago she's have also two hours at today 

We’re in an environmental crisis where access to our shrinking resources is now, in some parts of the world, contributing to conflict. Yet here, people have been sustainably collaborating for hundreds of years to equitably share water – which is the precious resource they have. Not based on wealth or privilege but on how much is needed by the land that feeds their community.

This is an example of a commons – a type of human behaviour that provides a sense of hope – as an example of how people and communities can develop in ways that respect the long-term value of a natural resource. So, to find out more, I spoke to Sabina Pedrazinni – a researcher who has recently reviewed what makes a commons work. Because this may give us clues about how, rather than compete over precious resources, we might share them peacefully and sustainably. 

Sabina: Okay, so thank you for having me. My name is Sabina Pedrazzini, and I'm a researcher at the Centre for Development and Environment of the University of Bern in Switzerland.

PHJ: Thank you so much for joining, Sabina. Perhaps we might start by just telling us what commons are?

Sabina: Commons are usually defined as a group of people who self-organize around a shared natural resource. And like in the past, this was very much the case in rural context, while now we can see that commons also arise in more urban context. And what is interesting about the commons, I would say, is that the shared resource is collectively owned by the members of the commons. And so this represents something in between private and public property. So it's like a third option to own resource. 

Sabina: Yeah, commons have like this structure that is called a social dilemma, because there is this really strong tension between personal interest and collective interest. Because of course, being part of a commons, like for example, if we take the examples you're looking at of water commons, probably people are limited in the amount of water they can use, because they are part of this commons. So of course, for me, like as a member of a commons for me personally, the ideal setting is the one in which I can take as much water as I want, while all the others still respect the limitations of water. But of course, if I think so, most likely other people also think so. And so if in the end everybody acts like me, so not respecting the limitation, the resource will be completely overused, and there will be no water for anybody. And so the idea is that there is really this tension between what is good for me and what is good for the collective. And of course, what is good for the collective is also good for me, but it's not like the optimal outcome that I could get out of it. So it's a kind of self-sacrificing in a sense for the commons good. And also there is, as a consequence, if I cooperate, so if I respect the limits, I give the possibility to other people to actually free ride on my cooperation and to overuse the resource. So also cooperation, as I mentioned, is always a risk if you don't exactly know what others are doing, because maybe you are the one respecting all the limits and then all the others are overusing. So in the end, you end up with an overused resource, even if you stayed in the limits. So I would say that that's the most important challenge in commons.

PHJ: So you've reviewed a vast amount of literature on what makes commons work – what are the personal factors or qualities that help people self-organise and share a resource effectively? 

Sabina: The most important one in my review was social identification with the group of people forming the commons. So the more I identify with the group, the more I'm willing to cooperate with the other members and for the commons good. 

PHJ: But people can have multiple identies, to their families, their nation, their local are? 

Sabina: since there can be several identities at the same time, it's very important that the identity, like the commons identity, so the fact that I identify as a member of this commons is in a way stronger than all the others, so that I am willing to act for the greater good, like for the commons good and not for like all the other groups good. 

PHJ: And what other personal qualities predict whether someone will behave well in a commons situation? 

Sabina: Something that is also very important more on an individual level is trust in other members because in commons we are in a context where I cooperate without exactly knowing what if the other are also cooperating or not. So I can cooperate, but I don't know if others did the same or just acted for their personal interests and now are exploiting the fact that I am cooperating. So being a trusting person is important. If you have a group of trusting people, they're more likely to be able to share commons. And yeah, then maybe another factor that is more like on the individual level is collective efficacy. So collective efficacy is the belief that the group's effort will lead to the desired outcome in a sense. So it's easier to, I mean, it's quite obvious maybe, but it's easier to cooperate if we know that we will obtain, or we are likely to obtain what we would like to. So this is about your belief in the ability to achieve something. So we talk about self-efficacy, which is kind of your personal confidence. But collective efficacy is your confidence that the group can actually do what needs to be done. Yeah, exactly. The two concepts are very much related. But yeah, one is more at the individual level while the other is at the group level.

PHJ: And then issues like social status and gender – but I get the impression these get involved in a complex way – so there's no simple message about how gender and social status predict whether we’ll get on with sharing the commons…. 

Sabina: Yeah, that's what I concluded also in my paper, because the results were so diverse and so ambiguous in a sense, because they were very much context dependent. So I don't think we could make a statement like women cooperate more than men or the opposite, because yeah, the research shows that it really depends on the context, on how things are measured, on how the group is composed, and so on. So it's quite complicated to grow a general conclusion.

PHJ: And then there are these more external factors about the society, the circumstances, the ways things are organised – which are really interesting of course – because these are the things that we might change to make commons more likely to happen. 

Sabina: And yeah, maybe the most important one that I identified here are social norms. So social norms, in general, not only in commons context, that are very like wide and demonstrate effect on behaviour, because we as human beings, usually we don't like to say that we behave in a certain way just because others do or just because others think that's the right thing to do. But basically, that's what we do. So social norms really have a very important place in predicting behaviours. 

PHJ: yeah and the power of social norms is a lever, since by  raising awareness of the positive  behaviour of a few you can influence others. What else seems to make a difference?

Sabina: So maybe the next one that we could build on, since it's very much related to social norm, is like the anonymity of the context. So how much like the individual behaviours are accountable.

PHJ: Right, so this is actually about non, I can't say it, this is about non-anonymity, really. It's about people not being anonymous.

Sabina: Ideally, that's the, yeah, that's the ideal setting for people to cooperate, because if they know that other people can know what they did, of course, they are more or much motivated to comply to these social norms that we just mentioned. While if the setting is completely anonymous, so if I can do anything and I know that nobody will ever know of it, of course, I'm less motivated to comply.

PHJ: but you also found research showing that those who strongly identify with the group can still cooperate even when its anonymous?

Sabina: yeah, they really cared about the group. So they didn't care about the fact that nobody could see their action. 

PHJ: And what about incentives? Can you actually motivate people in any way to cooperate effectively and positively?

Sabina: People are very much responsive to incentives, be it social or like more economic or material incentives. So social incentives, we could relate to what we just said about social norms and anonymity in the sense that if we know that people can see our action, we seek people's approval because as human beings, we want to fit in. So we want other people to approve of us. 

PHJ: And then finally, there's an issue which I think we've already touched upon already about communication. 

Sabina: Yeah, so it has been demonstrated that communication is really important to foster cooperation. Most of the studies I mentioned in my paper come from a laboratory setting, so where people by default are a bit in their box and they cannot communicate. So allowing communication really improves their cooperation. So maybe in a real life settings, this is a bit less the case in the sense that in real life settings, it's like the default is that people can communicate. But I think what is important is how we communicate and what we communicate, because communication is especially helpful for cooperation if it's used to create like a cooperative social norms or to agree on the strategies to follow as a group to manage the shared resource. And also, it's helpful to use communication to foster a common identity, so to come back to this social identification I mentioned in the beginning. And also, communication could also be related to social norms and social incentives in the sense that we could, let's say, gossip about other people, so exchange like reputational information about other people. And so this lowers the anonymity because it's enough that one person sees what someone else is doing and then they can share this information with others. And so having a space to communicate, a structured space to communicate, it's also really important to foster cooperation in common.

You can see so many of the factors mentioned by Sabina here amongst traditional farmers in the Draa Valley. The community is welcoming, optimistic and I would say trusting of each other, but also there’s a strong sense of shared identity, with farmers and their families facing similar problems, experiences and history. 

In such local networks, opportunities for anonymity are scarce – which is another point in favour of commons working effectively, with practice literally out in the open and operated by people you can recognise and know. And then there’s communication, not just chatting and perhaps gossiping over a shared breakfast, but as people work together and also through a formal structure for the elders to sit and discuss more the tricky issues.  

And while the traditional culture here supports the sharing of water, the sharing of water has also contributed to the culture, further strengthening identity and the social norms that favour the commons operating. For example, the  Achoura  or water festival serves as both a religious observance and a time for community reflection and festivity, where people gather together in a joyous fostering of unity and shared values.

This 500 year old approach to sharing water is now under threat from climate change and the worsening water situation that’s been exacerbated by new types of demands (including energy and tourism). As the dams open less, so the opportunities to rehearse the old system water sharing have become fewer, the meetings of elders to discuss water issues become less frequent, people leave for the cities, farmers with non-traditional and possibly less sustainable ideas move in. But, at least for now, its still possible to see here a living demonstration of commons as a means to connect people positively with each other and with their planet.