Mega‐irrigation and neoliberalism in postcolonial states: evolution and crisis in the gharb plain, morocco

Abstract

ABSTRACT. This article explores the development, evolution and impacts of large‐scale irrigation schemes in the formation of the postcolonial state of Morocco and in more recent neoliberal decades. In particular, the article focuses on the Gharb Plain in the Sebou River basin, which was targeted by huge investments to become the core region for national development. In this area, three stages of development – colonial, early independent, and the aggressive politique des grandes barrages post‐1970 – have created two clearly different and successive landscapes. The traditional landscape has been overlain, and largely obliterated, by colonial and postcolonial governmental landscapes, reflected through different spatial, economic, cultural, and political patterns over time. In the present, a fourth stage of neoliberal development is occurring in the landscape, in which diffused poverty and ecosystem collapse coincide with greater concentrated wealth and the building of technological infrastructures. The article aims to complement critical studies on neoliberal environments, by focusing in particular on the manipulation, dispossession and commodification of water and land resources in irrigated agriculture in Morocco. These emerging rationalities are closely related to the changing policies of the contemporary Moroccan state.

Political ecology of asymmetric ecological knowledges: diverging views on the eucalyptus-water nexus in the Taita Hills, Kenya

“…But watercourses and certain forested areas remained as state property. Since the 1980s, Kenya has followed the tendency to 'neoliberalize' natural resource governance, as suggested by global financial institutions, combining privatization with decentralization of public institutions in order to decrease public spending (Heynen et al 2007;Minoia 2012). This is visible in the organization of forest and water governance in Kenya.…”

Assessing EU Aid to the ‘Southern Partners’ of the European Neighbourhood Policy: Who Benefits from the Reforms in the Agricultural and Industrial Sector?

“…However, the state continued to play an important role in other aspects of agriculture, such as the organisation of irrigation programmes. Considering North African climate conditions, these programmes are crucial for agricultural productivity and primarily benefit large-scale farmers (Minoia 2012). The involvement of the EU in water management and the support that Morocco gets from the European Investment Bank for irrigation projects (ENPI 2012; "Morocco: EIB lends 42.5 mln for irrigation and agriculture" 2014) is not related to the failure of traditional policies to manage natural resources, but to the introduction of neoliberal principles in natural resource management.…”

“…Second, the EU supports the establishment of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), which are supposed to reduce state control over water resources and rural areas. Yet, anthropological fieldwork in areas where ENP funds have been allocated show that the EU-funded schemes have been governed by centralised authoritarian powers and have reproduced the power of the established agrarian elites (Minoia 2012).…”

Local assessment of changes in water-related ecosystem services and their management: DPASER conceptual model and its application in Taita Hills, Kenya

“…However, development of a 'payment for ES' mechanism would require careful planning and reconsideration of the nature of land property rights in order to make the mechanism sustainable. Previous critical studies have shown how the biophysical environment has been impacted negatively by applying the principles of natural resource governance through mechanisms such as monetary valuation, privatization and enclosure (Heynen et al 2007;Minoia 2012).…”