Study site description: Sehoul, Morocco

Table of Contents

1. General information
2. Bio-physical description
3. Land and resource use
   1. Land use practice in cultivated areas
   2. Water resources
   3. Forest resources
   4. Strengths of existing land use practices
   5. Weaknesses of existing land use practices
   6. Major degradation issues
   7. Experimental results
4. Socio-economic description
5. Institutional and political setting
6. Relevant end-users / stakeholder groups
7. Past and on-going projects

Water resources

The main regional groundwater system lies in the Pliocene calcarenites (the Mamora aquifer). Due to the dipping of the Sehoul Plateau to the north, the calcarenites thin out in the south in the Sidi Azzouz plateau, and the volume of the aquifer is less important there. For supply of water to farms and households, the inhabitants of the Sehoul commune are dependent on withdrawal of groundwater from artificial wells.

The larger farms pump water from the Mamora aquifer, and some have deep wells to pump from the Miocene aquifer. However, the majority of farmers in the Sehoul Plateau having traditional small farms, take water from a third, local groundwater system that consists of numerous small and unconnected water bodies concentrated in the alluvial terraces, confined below by the Miocene marls. The recharge of local groundwater systems depends solely on precipitation.

Of the water withdrawal, some is used for irrigation; the other part is for domestic use. In this region, the sustained availability of groundwater resources is vital. However, as a result of rising demands for withdrawal by the expansion of irrigated fields the renewable water resources per capita is declining.

The main water resources are represented by the reservoir of the dam Sidi Mohamed ben Abdellah with a capacity of 433 Mm³ and which is expected to reach about 1.025Mm³; there is also a small dam Al Arjat Sghir with a capacity of 45000 m³; the water table has a potential of 8 Mm³/yr. The effective use of water in the commune concerns only the water table, while the SMBA reservoir is forbidden for the use by direct pumping (entirely devoted for the cities).

The irrigated farms represent about 790 ha, 3,6% of the commune cultivated surface. The system of drip irrigation is generally practiced in the majority of exploitations. The farms are equipped with a well, a pump and a reservoir. Water is so rationally used and well conserved.

According to the 2004 census, the families of the communes are not connected to the drinking water network. 72,9 % of the families use wells, 22,8% springs et 4,5 % public fountains