• Program” to build infrastructure, streamline water management, and conserve as the country grapples with climate change, drought, and groundwater depreciation

RABAT: Regional and local leaders in eastern Morocco met with residents and civil society groups this week after months of protests over a water management plan set to take effect later this year.

Thousands in the town of Figuig stopped paying water bills and have taken to the streets since November to protest a municipal decision transitioning drinking water management from the town to a regional multi-service agency.

Residents worry the policy changes could jeopardize their livelihoods and, in turn, the community’s future.

Carrying signs and chanting that their water is not for sale, they have suggested the plan is a pretext for privatization — a claim authorities deny.

Figuig relies entirely on a below-ground aquifer for drinking and irrigation water, which flows through a centuries-old canal system.

Though both come from the same source, the new policy applies only to drinking water.

Anger grew in February when movement leader Mohammed Brahmi was arrested, his brother and fellow activist El-Mostafa Brahmi said.

An appeals court handed him an eight-month prison sentence last week for incitement, insulting an official, and participating in an unauthorized gathering.

The protested plan is part of Morocco’s 2020 “National Drinking Water Supply and Irrigation Program” to build infrastructure, streamline water management, and conserve as the country grapples with climate change, drought, and groundwater depreciation.

Anxieties about future access and affordability center on provisions that allow for limited private sector investment despite authorities’ reassurances that reforms will not lead to price hikes or privatization.

The municipality said in a January statement on Facebook that reforms would expand the “limited resources” of the current system, which has relied on outside assistance from the state to update water infrastructure, including treatment plants.

Rachid Zenati, the region’s general secretary, confirmed those plans and noted the governing board would include local representatives to manage the multi-service agency as required under the law.

“There’s confusion and a deficit in communication,” he said of the pushback, noting Figuig’s traditional irrigation system would not be affected.

He said the governor met with Figuig residents and civil society on Thursday.

Though protests have been limited to a small town in one of Morocco’s four regions where the policy has been introduced, the country ultimately wants to expand reforms to each of its 12 regions.

It started implementing them, including in the East region, last year.

Figuig is one of the region’s eight provinces.

AP