The Multi-Faced Social Dynamics of a Community Plunging into the Groundwater Economy: A Case in the Middle Atlas, Morocco

Analyses of the development of intensive agriculture based on groundwater have often focused on the economic and environmental changes this development triggered. Yet, this development takes place within and interacts with multi-faced social dynamics. The study assesses such interactions in the Ain Timguenay community, in the Middle Atlas region of Morocco. In the past, the social organization of this community was mainly based around a religious brotherhood, and there were well-delineated symbolic and social differences between various fractions. The development of groundwater use led first to an increase of a sense of “socioeconomic” individual freedom of farmers. Second, it enabled the development of new forms of collective actions, especially around the creation of farmers’ cooperatives and associations. The “modernization” in social relations led to deep changes in the way these relations are organized. However, collective capacities to take initiatives remain actually fragile. The area is nowadays facing a rapid drop of groundwater levels, which is threatening the sustainability of the intensive agricultural development model. This crisis has emerged very quickly. The community faces the challenge of developing collective initiatives to adapt to this crisis in the short term.