The film tells the story of three agricultural and pastoral regions in Morocco:
1- Tamtouchte region in the southeast
The authorities are currently building a dam to develop tourist industry in the village of Tamtouchte, whose population is about 12,000, and composed mainly of small farmers who earn their living from grazing livestock and cultivating their lands. Because of this situation people will have to leave their homes as their village will be flooded by the dam’s water. The state has offered a meager compensation, but the farmers refused the government plan and asked the authorities to construct the agricultural dam in another area. Residents of Tamtouchte fought and protested against the construction of this dam, but the state intervened forcefully, beating them with sticks and jailed many of them. Still, the company continues to build the dam.
2-The region of Sidi Ayad, in the suburbs of the city of Midelt
MAZIN is the name of the company that has occupied about 4,500 hectares of land originally owned by the tribe of Sidi Ayyad: the tribe that has been exploiting it for centuries to graze their livestock. The company fenced 4,500 hectares in order to establish a huge solar energy project within the giant framework project of NOOR 4, and stopped the inhabitants to come closer. The farmers and herdsmen organized demonstrations against this illegal occupation and the misery and the hard conditions of life in their village until they were banned by the local authorities. Saeed Oba Memon was the prominent detainee, who was arrested twice and jailed for more than 12 months.
3- Aoulouz in the region of Taroudant
Aoulouz is the region of agriculture whose water brush is very rich. One of the local associations has organized the process of exploitation of irrigation water via drainage channels in exchange for money. This association accumulated huge funds selling water. The small farmers tried to organize themselves within the framework of another association to manage their affairs, but they faced many obstacles. They also organized many sit-ins, followed by judicial follow-up and trials. It turns out that there were plans to overuse the region’s waters by collecting the dam’s water and transferring it to the big capitalistic estates in the Ait Ameera region in Agadir and other large farms. This situation will threaten the region, in the coming years, by using excessively its water resources.
Film length:16 minutes
languages: Arabic and Tamazight
available translation: English
