ABSTRACT
Talking about governance allows us to extend the debate on water management in order to ask who manages water, which water laws exist, how water stakeholders interact, and whether the distribution of water is equitable. Water governance has the potential to deal with major societal changes. Although the Moroccan Environmental Charter and its 2011 constitution stress the need for participation, “environmental governance remains highly centralised, and takes no consideration of the needs of the citizens in the use of natural resources” (Houdret et al., 2018: 1). The advanced regionalization project, in addition to new water laws and new water actors, the rise of a hydropolitical consciousness and new modes of communication including social media, should all be factors helping the country develop a better mode of water governance. Whether the result is positive or not is debatable. This chapter reviews advances and disappointments in the evolution of “water governance” and relates it to the need for Amazigh people to be included in critical decision-making processes. It also shows that governance and the design of water projects at an appropriate scale and with relevant stakeholders can help define in practical ways what “sustainable development” means in the context of water management.
