At the heart of the moroccan high Atlas Mountains the semi arid climate only gets a few months of rainfall. For centuries the berbers have survived in this hostile environment. Arid valleys into l. A. Seas however in recent. Months probably caused by Climate Change have become a course of great concern. To many. And is a major challenge something the remote village of teasing michigan is trying to address. And dealy who is head of the local council believes the future of his people depends on it. He wants to make teasingly sheykh the first village in the valley to manage its own water from collection at seouls to the reuse of waste force or for irrigation. The high atlas a Mountain Range that stretches across Northern Africa forms a seven hundred fifty kilometer long barrier that divides morocco saharan atlantic and mediterranean regions. One hour from the eureka river winds its way through the peaks. The virgin fairly quickly gives way to stony terrain the surrounding peaks rise to over three thousand metres. Knows these summits well the young birds are gods visitors from around the world along the areas numerous trails sharing his passion for these isolated mountains. He spent his childhood exploring these vast expanses. He knows every wellspring every rock. Today he is fighting to preserve and manage a Precious Resource water. Lives in the village of tea perched at an elevation of one thousand six hundred meters. He learns to recount how his ancestors were the first to settle here more than eight hundred years ago t. Z. Means pass and mean slippery ground. Today hundreds of families inhabited traditional berber village overlooked by the imposing plateau. There was no electricity here until two thousand and one but since then the village has grown steadily. The construction of a school and a road have transformed the area. Every year there are more students the village is expanding families are returning from the cities to settle in the town. To keep up with this change vosa management is paramount rainfall has become less frequent in recent he is which worries the villagers encouraged by rashid they have gathered together to confront these changes. Since the village has been redeveloping since two thousand and ten we form the council in two thousand and eleven and from there the first project you launched was to bring Drinking Water the homes. As you see there are water meters. And in front of us theres the water system. Water is shared between all the houses it was engineered to be able to supply homes both down here and those up above. Receive launched these water access initiatives knowing full well that the future of the village depends on it. So its been about fifteen days since we built this watering hole for animals to drink from and it has an automated filling system so there is no need to open the tap. And an animal can come alone and drink. Now and then if the village is not connected to a sanitation that work. And everyone has clean Drinking Water that is a photographer. But. Me that im. Ready. If you dont hold meetings it will never happen by meeting with people you understand what they want and they see what you want to. Everyone brings his or her own ways of working but you cant handle everything alone whats more there are villages who enjoy working more and more and thats encouraging. We receive donations and projects get finished. For the past six years this city has been running a little bit degas in the hospital village their guests are immersed in culture and quickly wind up supposes by his personality and to somehow show project. I recently learned. Some of. It you can see justin is not the best musician who weve come to look. At people passing through then the majority goes to casablanca now we have all kind of. We used to only know how to make it with prickly pear you already knew but people have since showed me how to make jam from black berry fate and. Its house is now a habit activity when many projects i need. I got my ideas from traveling all around morocco. If i worked for cook with a Tourist Agency so i traveled all over morocco i observe people in their homes just before shes you and i take one good idea for me one here one here in a vision i have a small bed and breakfast here. So i can hold people and talk with them and it brings another idea. So there are ideas here and there from everyone. And when i start another project. People help me advance to get everything working well. Tell me what you can do and ill tell you how you can help us. Get out of here from the. Bishops resourcefulness and communication skills made him a shoo in for leader of the town council. We want to find a way to save water we didnt have this problem in the past when i was enough water to irrigate all the fields for fifteen years theres been a lesson last water its not. Today only new techniques enable us to irrigate the fields like before. Not national through the water supply is divided into eight and every day is branched into sixteen channels. And that way everyone receives the amount of water that corresponds to the size of his fields so we dont you dont. See. Have you found a way of improving the situation there. Just yes some of the can also have been mined by cement to minimise leakage. But if we can water more fields with. Little you know. He just said there for the last fifteen years theyve been strengthening the Irrigation Canal with cement. But they havent started work on the most critical section theyre not ready they simply dont have the tools to do this. Thats. The others count on a machine to find solutions that will ensure the villages future. Fortunately many of their projects are about to pay off. Before the water system Drinking Water came directly from the Irrigation Canal we had no water during the day there was only then to the villages full to store water reserves in the village then a village. We used the system for a long time until four people came down with color to villages died the other two had to be treated in the hospital with the little money their families had. About point people realize we had to do something here should a person. After the outbreak the villages went to see the qaida and the government to find a water solution. Provisional engineers came to the village to analyze the situation they offered to make a reservoir fed by the spring water leaving the fountains in the village. That was in two thousand and one. That i mean you know the subject all of us are fairly fontainebleau we dont you want to see. An organization help us to acquire the piping about two thousand two hundred meters of it to connect the source to the reservoir. On time you know as it was all the provinces help build the basin for fountains in the village and provided all the equipment needed for work and the village. Was. Crawling over the edges please come out so were calling all villages please come out to work its almost noon we have to go to work. After several weeks of discussions where she was able to raise the necessary funds for the acquisition of two kilometers of hoses to replace the old piping. Countless leaks wasting a great deal of water the new hose of studio construction will carry Drinking Water to the village reservoir us. There made. It what it drove the tide before even the. I thought we could maybe run the pipe along there but there are too many rocks so running for the down i mean these are cans follow along with cans. So you can think about it. There are often rocks like this sometimes we have to move up or down about five metres its a big problem either you have to expose the pipe and risk a blockage or have to go down but then it is not sure well be able to get to the right level for the basin. That is the problem not only we started like that they came out to love so we tried the opposite we went back to the basin and gradually raise the cans and now its good theres a small problem but well fix it so. The village is a mobilized to catch a trench along the mountainside richards friends come to lend a hand to such a major project. Of the sick as its faster now the villages or is it just easy to see this is a place you know its mostly so that later we will be able to do this with other villages so help. Us help them because if they see to become to develop. Thats it this is pretty well developed and the others are much less if they have a lot of inertia we are energized but they are very slow and they need help to get up to speed. There are some projects we should do collectively some things we cant do alone so we must get them involved. Before nine hundred ninety five only about fourteen percent of the rural moroccan population had access to clean Drinking Water. After several cholera epidemics the moroccan government moved to establish the pager program to deliver water to rural populations. Today ninety two percent of the rural population is supplied with Drinking Water but some inaccessible villages of the high atlas remain under served. Up jealousies manages the building site closely assisted by rashid. Are the engine behind always working to complete the latest project and help the village advance. The steep gradient and temperatures of over thirty degrees celsius make work difficult but the village men are used to these conditions they usually work in the fields below. A few days a month they volunteer their time to the various village projects. Without their help because none of it would be possible. Naturally the younger villagers are eager to work. Behind these stones slice the spring that supplies to six hundred residents with Drinking Water. Clean water originates from the younger plateau a veritable water tower of the valley numerous lakes storm water and snow through the winter and spring creating large reserves where the dry season. Waters seeps lowly into the crevices of the rocks resurfacing several hundred metres below. Naturally filtered it is an excellent quality. During the hottest hours of the day a burger banquet in the heart of the mountain. Cooked by the Village Women help revive the tired work his. Hospitality is world famous it is a culture based on mutual support and exchange harsh Living Conditions of a favor such Strong Social bonds. Such lovely gatherings over tea or a meal are frequent in the high atlas. At the end of the day the first meters of hose can finally be. It will take several days for the villagers to finish the construction. For some villages like. The arrival of Running Water is a very important change especially for women who used to have to fetch and carry water. Relieved of this town their lives have improved. The valleys first drink above water system belongs to t. C. But Drinking Water is not free for the villagers the council has set up an income based tariff. The money collected is used to maintain the system it also helps to discourage overuse while the arrival of Running Water has improved the Living Conditions of the inhabitants the production of waste water has become problematic. The villagers build on the work so we can do worlds for toilets and showers. Richard foresaw the problem two years ago and started work on assume a system in the village over several weeks hundreds of meters of pipes were buried in the ground. The installation of su is has not been without its fair share of trouble. The villages limited resources couldnt cover the costs of excavating machines so everything had to be done with picks and shovels. Fortunately the Village Council was able to pay for the necessary tools. We needed twenty seven sanitation sewer to carry waste water about four hundred five hundred meters from the village. We have to build really the water for good it really feels. To decision. Maintenance costs will come from villagers themselves as fees collected according to Drinking Water consumption. In high atlas villages sanitation is often limited to latrines waste water is discharged close by risking contamination both for locals and for villages further down. Into using a shared piping carries domestic waste water directly from each house which helps reduce pollution and. Today waste water still flows out. But not for long the waste Water Treatment system that villagers wished for can finally be put to use. With the help of french engineers they were able to take three. Which will contain the effluent water the size of the ponds will depend on the water consumption of the village which it had estimated five hundred cubic meters per month for six hundred inhabitants and allowed for a likely population increase in the coming years. We tested a few sides of the lagoon so this was the only good side because it has the right slope and there are fields to irrigate with the treated water you know what you do. You want something. And up to lizzies ever see the last measures before they and the villages break ground in a few days were going to construct three lagoon to accommodate future water use by people who return to the village today we have six hundred inhabitants down the road they could be eight hundred or nine hundred people. So were going to meet large enough to last the coming years. Its in the pools with a wall of concrete so that impermeable basically will line them with clay soil from the village so not because the top system was a little expensive. And we prefer to use local materials. The senate haitian project is unique in the valley and is probably the only one in the high atlas the lagoon purification technique usually works well but it depends a lot on the sites climatic conditions at one thousand six hundred metres above sea level temperatures can drop below freezing and alter the purification process. The village of t. Z. Will serve as a pilot site for this type of treatment system if the experiment succeeds the systems low cost could spur development in other villages. Soon this is what the looking swell looked like. Tariff occasion system is based on maintaining an active ecosystem sewage accumulates in the first tank. Sunlight enters the water and provides the energy necessary for pollution consuming micro algae to grow. These photosynthesize and produce oxygen essential to the development of billions of aerobic bacteria that will more completely digest the waste. The water undergoes purification for several weeks in the first place. In the second and third tanks plants refine the Water Quality so that it can be used for field irrigation. The reuse of treated waste water is a promising solution to the problem of water scarcity which affects agriculture in particular. Vantage is twofold it enables the conservation of upstream Water Resources and to adoption of downstream pollution. In the village of. Waste water recycling will serve to irrigate several plots that have been recently abandoned for lack of available water. In the high atlas precipitation average is two hundred fifty millimeters a year the berbers have adapted to these arid conditions by building kilometers of canals which serve to irrigate terrorist crops. This traditional irrigation system allows the cultivation of grains and vegetables forming a verdant patch work. In these valleys subsistence farming predominates the village peasants take water directly from the streams to irrigate their land. Today rich it is off to identify potential catchment areas to supply new cultivated plots he is joined by french engineers who offer project supports. A meal transports most of the equipment up to a canyon near the village. In winter the high atlas is often exposed to tarantula atlantic storms an enormous amount of water can fall in just a few hours. The ability of the soil and sparse vegetation cant hold the rapid runoff over time intensive erosion has carved deep canyons. Water is the primary resource in the rekha valley below it irrigates the vast. Agricultural plane of hose and supplies merrick hess the fifth largest city in the country with Drinking Water. However is storing a lot of the ground water more than Twelve Thousand taps suck up water from drinking and agriculture but also for tourism and golf courses. Good Water Management is essential for the entire region. Irrigates its fields with water from the who are potato after rainfall water seeds all flows into the canyons it is then collected upstream of the village with a rudimentary dam called. The dam divert storm water into an Irrigation Canal which carries it to storage pools and summer it flows in just a trickle this sharing of water is fundamental in the burger culture arrangements between t z and neighboring villages have been in place for more than three hundred fifty years. Each source is assigned to a village depending both on location and on day or night use. Village elders strive to enforce the rules so as to ensure theres water for all the inhabitants. Of the old. Villages divide the water that accumulates during the night in winter they can irrigate every seven days but only every fourteen days in the summer. Families take turns sending. Representative to distribute the allocated bought it each one. Each receives according to the number they possess the. Traditional berber irrigation is very voter intensive the flooding of fields uses fall move water then the plants actually need rudimentary urban concrete canals lead to significant water loss through seepage and evaporation. Every hundred meters theres a ten percent water loss due to the earth and study canals therefore there is a very significant loss often a part of these pipes to carry water the plots we can calibrate every field even in summer when there is less water but still with the same order as one zero this is them we will be able to grow a lot of vegetables and the villages will reap the profits. There are additional fields behind the village down below in the valley. We started to plant fruit trees in summer like cherry which needs a very little water which needs only a little more. It is are we even planted trees that do not need to be watered such as cairo. When officiates project is to install a drip system to allow dried out passages in the valley to be reclaimed for fritz and vegetables. He can count on help from his friend silvana a french agricultural engineer. Its called the so as you see we follow the main Irrigation Canals on the map since we have to measure the elevation at each location. Go to the reservoir to measure and set the waters peak altitude. And then we will go down the channel the first second third or fourth down to the last and measure it slow. Him down you know we. Will do the reservoir first and move on from there ok lets go. They have to determine the total amount of water available to irrigate the villages fields this information is crucial for determining the size and volume of the irrigation system. Through the forefront thats used just as a Small Reservoir right. Its full in the morning and then you let the water out. We will measure the floor in a minute. But first lets go and measure the big reservoir. The former is doing. The job system consists of pipes that carry water directly to the plant roots thereby limiting the losses from seepage and evaporation. But decision water pressure is needed for it to work once they know the volume of available water and the slope from storage pools to lower pools they can calculate the required pressure. Old. Pull the all the lets check out deep it is. Cool. To see. Two and a half meters actually more because theres more than twenty centimeters of mud youre going to clean that out right to the food for. Improving on the ancestral irrigation practices can produce substantial was his savings receipt is aware that the drip system is ambitious people are accustomed to traditional flood irrigation and implementation will take time. Needs of the projects and has travelled far beyond the valley. At a university in america two Water Management specialists became interested initiates projects. Alleviate and eunice belong to the tremlett barratry where researchers from the Research Institute for development and university in marrakesh Work Together to improve Water Management in the southern mediterranean. Coast to do much of our work with a high Atlas Mountains of marcuss lord high outlaws which functions as. The water tower for the plane. Were trying to quantify the water flow coming from atlas tributaries a lot of this work goes into understanding the Water Systems in these basins the interaction between surface water and ground water and understanding the inner relatedness of the plane and the mountain. Climate models confirm the warning that weve already seen over the last fifty years the predicted loss of rainfall could cut agricultural productivity fifty percent by twenty twenty clued in surface water areas. Water resources in the how are characterized by the semi saturated consumption of surface water. On average about eighty percent of surface water is in use. This is due to population growth and the emergence of new years in this case the tourist demand mixed with the more standard agricultural demand. Accounts for about eighty percent of water consumption the relationship between water availability and agricultural productivity is critical. We have had a very substantial reduction in surface water intake so the burden placed on groundwater is increasing as the session of droughts beginning in the late seventys has contributed to a drop in the water table which has been lowered about one to two metres per year this. The two scientists often in the field but neither of them have made it to the heights of the reka valley is located. Since its im interested in visiting the village to talk with the people and to see you know sharing id like to see that terrorist irrigation methods and what they have to say about Water Management in their own town to throw their decided to spend a few days in the village to better understand the local water issues and this illusion is put in place by the sheet. So. You. Very well. The town council gets the tools and abilities to do the work labor is free. Theres janice to take all of the trenches to. Yes all by hand with shovels and think axes for tomorrow you can hike up the go plant so. Up there you can see the entire area there are beautiful views up there from the kings of the world. Hike up to the plateau starts early in the morning nine hundred vertical meters separate the village from the summit. With a guy. Calls it a berber workout the reward awaiting them at the top helps them to get there pretty. Good is part of the highlands most impressive is the three hundred meters of rock face that run along the cliff. Theres an exceptional view of the highest Atlas Mountains off in the distance called towers over one thousand meters above sea level. Is going up the. Clearing of the world. At this elevation water is stored in winter snow pack in the spring the snow melts and gradually releases a water supply for the inhabitants of the valley below. Today researchers from the i. R. T. And the University Americans are able to estimate the amount of melt water by remote sensors. Measurements are derived from an observation satellite that all that several hundred kilometers above the earth. With each pass it differentiates the reflected light of the target area either clear snow in rocky area or dark in snow over cultivated soil. Every day the software and modeling tools process the data estimating the snowpack and predicting its water equivalent. This information is extremely valuable for those men it involves. On the bottom of this hole we have to get on the ground to confirm the measurements from remote sensors since these are relatively in direct measurements were relying on remote sensors to accurately understand snowpack and water content so we also have to take field measurements either via stations with Continuous Measurement tools or by a special monitoring done by hand often along transects its important to follow up every day with such strong sun beating down and high levels of evaporation but there are satellites passing all day to provide daily measurements of the performance though for most once the models give us an idea of the snowpack water equivalent we try to understand how much of this water accounts for surface runoff. In this region its estimated that thirty percent of the surface runoff comes from snow melt since two thousand observe the annual variability years between ten and thirty percent depending on the year so as far as trends go the number of heavy snow days increases at high altitudes and decreases lower down with an increasingly early start to the mounting. Block of. Satellite images can be accurate down to several nieces. The compilation of images taken by the taiwanese formats to Satellite Office a spectacular overview of the riaa catchment. The collected data allows scientists to map the water cycle in the high atlas and thus provide Sustainable Water levels for the solutions. To this reset is critical for southern mediterranean regions with water consumption is increasing while resources are diminishing from year to year. The Atlas Mountains on the roccos water towers. Like reka many worries originate on its steep slopes and flow towards the atlantic or the mediterranean. Water is one of the primary factors limiting economic development. It is critical for agriculture which consumes eighty percent of the eventual resources but is also valuable for hydro electricity. Rapid increase in boise demand combined with recurrent droughts means ever increasing pressure on this limited naturally cells. Because of the distortions talking to rashied we realise that the proportion of water used by irrigated agriculture versus domestic use is pretty much the same here as it is lower down in the water channels ultimately a six hundred person village functions very similarly in terms of Water Management and used to an area of three hundred thousand or three Million People it. Will move this to this one. This Mountain Spring has very soft water. If you. Will we see that in the measure of conduct of any of the Drinking Water here. In the comic to vittie is one hundred ninety five micro siemens percent a meter. Is the water good. Solution to this measurement only tells us the salinity is about one hundred fifty milligrams per liter. He proposed ability we have to do lab analysis. Do you suppose it will hit home to do all these systems require make since theyve been they all need to be expanded thought the message in the village will certainly grow and the need for water will only increase since you all for the office were going to closely monitor the sanitation project because its one of the first of its kind in these valleys its success could impact all the villages in the region do you actually do the. Truckers cure for snow i think what most impressed me talking with rashid is the villagers ability to manage themselves in fact every member of this village participates in the development in some way up to. And development here is multifaceted and its first of course theres the access to Drinking Water which we can get to see but then theres sanitation and a road that can help make the village and school accessible now theres also a Sponsorship Program to help provide School Supplies to go in those offices go in there for the fields. To. Learn. From. The village of teasing is a model of adaptation in recent years theyve found a way to drastically improve their Living Conditions they strive toward Sustainable Management of the villages Water Resources every use is optimized to limit losses. In the near future the waste water system and now even greater reserves for irrigation. The mutual help and ingenuity of the better people at the heart of these projects and this is a response to ongoing Climate Change. It behind all the success lies one. Visionary resourceful and captivating he puts his heart and soul into these projects for the sake of this village his future. And this can be an example for every village anything is possible. At this point all villages more or less autonomous so we have everything the idea now is to grow lots of organic vegetables to have be highs and then many other projects like the rugs jobs. But it is a bit up the people who do we have to use what we have here in the village it is rich in resources but we must also be smart about it when you dish use it but. There are many things around us that we do not use just have to look as he said yesterday if were always working. Im always looking for new things right here. While teasing ishaq was able to take steps in the necessary direction much work remains and the other villages of the high atlas. Receive nandini hopes that they can benefit from his experience his work is just beginning. We showed it and you clicked it your black sun facebook. Which many is for your favorites and twenty seven c. Its the cream of the crowd. Our ranking of the twenty five most popular. Books every day this week on. The road. Next on t. W. Its polluting our waters and killing snot. Plastic waste. Some of it invisible to the naked eye. How your laundry ends up in the antarctic ocean. Tomorrow two to. Thirty minutes on d w. Ws Program Guide to the highlights of the home moms. Dot com highlights. When im traveling to be comfortable. But i also want to stay up to date on the latest news events. And d. W. Make some part of traveling easy just because its available and thousands of Hotels Resorts and cruise ships worldwide. Have you found a domain signing on the subject that shows d w in your room you can remember a prize or two d. W. Dot com travel quiz. In peru protesters have again clashed with police over the release from jail of battle fujimori the former president whos now in hospital was granted a pardon after serving less than a half of a twenty five year sentence for graft and human rights abuses protesters
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