Abdennabi El Mandour and Carlien Donkor
Carlien Donkor: Thank you for accepting our invitation Mr. El Mandour, Director of the Mohammed VI Museum for Water Civilization in Marrakech, Morocco. Thanks also for taking the time during the fifth conference of the Global Network of Water Museum (WAMU-NET) affiliated with the IHP (Intergovernmental Hydrological Program) of UNESCO in Porto. Could you give us a brief introduction to the mission and history of your museum, the opening date, the activities, projects, and people who work there?
Abdennabi El Mandour: The Mohammed VI Museum for Water Civilization was created by the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs (Minister Professor Ahmed Toufiq) in 2017. It pays tribute to the unique aspects of Moroccan water management, the historical role of the Habous, the contributions of the late King Hassan II, and the contemporary work of His Majesty King Mohammed VI for the new policies and hydraulic achievements of the Kingdom. We have a new building in a space of two hectares. There are about twenty civil servants working there. We have 2000 square meters of exhibition space that presents 13 themes on water, particularly in relation to ancient and current civilization, and the sharing of water.
The museum presents the issues and knowledge related to the use and control of water. To irrigate a million hectares, water must be stored. Water must be transported in overhead and underground pipes to reach the irrigation areas. This has led to the achievements of the hydraulic revolution in Morocco, initiated after the king's enthronement in 1961 and a royal speech in 1967 that gave the starting signal for the creation of dams and surface water storage areas. Currently and thanks to this development, Morocco has more than 150 large dams with a storage of 18 billion m3.
Morocco is in a drought that has already lasted for about six years. The government, as well as King Mohammed VI, have worked hard to find solutions to water resource problems in this country in face of the climate change. There is a program that is established for 2020-2027 and another program for 2030 -2050. In addition, we have several programs to raise awareness of the water challenges in Morocco, and for the preservation of heritage.
Carlien Donkor: How are the museum and its activities financed?
Abdennabi El Mandour: The Mohammed VI Museum for Water Civilization belongs to the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs. It is the ministry that has provided funding since the construction began in 2015. The construction was completed in 2017, and the management is done by the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs, which established a regional delegation in Marrakech. Since 2022, the ministry has established the autonomously managed state service (SEGMA).
Carlien Donkor: Why did you join WAMU-NET?
Abdennabi El Mandour: That's a very interesting question. We had an invitation in 2019 to participate in the third WAMU-NET conference in Valencia, Spain. The network is affiliated with the UNESCO IHP program, a resolution adopted by all the countries that are represented within UNESCO. We learned a lot from this network and we refined the work of the museum. For us it is an open door to the international community. We have been a member since 2019. Now, we are an elected executive member of the committee and we have the vice-presidency for Africa.
Carlien Donkor: And did this contribute to your objectives?
Abdennabi El Mandour: Yes, since 2019, many projects have been carried out with this network. The first thing we organized was the fourth WAMU-NET conference in Marrakech, which was a great success with all the members of this global network. We also attended a UNESCO conference in December 2022 to make the invisible visible, when we discussed how to show groundwater, how to treat it, and how to safeguard it. We showed what role the non-exploitation or overexploitation of these strategic reserves play.
We worked with WAMU-NET at the tenth World Water Forum which took place in Bali in May 2024 where an exhibition stand was dedicated to WAMU-NET. In this stand, we had meetings with the Moroccan Minister of Water and Equipment, Mr. Nizar Barakat with other ministries from Europe, Asia, and Africa on the creation of an ecomuseum of oases in Errachidia. This is a project that is close to our hearts and on which we are working. Thanks to WAMU-NET, we are helped with scientific knowledge about the methodology and process of creating the ecomuseum. So the exhibition will be made in Morocco, but following the methodology of ecomuseums, which is a speciality of the global network.
Carlien Donkor: Amazing, could you also contribute actively to the programs of the WAMU-NET network?
Abdennabi El Mandour: The Mohammed VI Museum for the Civilization of Water in Morocco has participated in all the programs launched by the WAMU-NET network: “The Water We Want”, “I Remember Water”, and “Ancient Hydro-Technologies”. Now, with the creation of the Errachidia Ecomuseum we are taking the next step as an active member of the network.
Carlien Donkor: That’s wonderful. Can I ask you about the difficulties or risks that you face, particularly for the heritage that you protect?
Abdennabi El Mandour: The Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs owns the hydraulic heritage and it is the one responsible for it . Hydraulic heritage is safeguarded at the Mohammed VI Museum and at the national libraries of the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs. Current water management is handled by the Ministry of Water and Equipment and the hydraulic agencies for water basin management created in 1930.
Carlien Donkor: You are in a city classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Does excessive tourism in Marrakech have an impact on your museum?
Abdennabi El Mandour: Indeed, Marrakech is a city very popular for tourism. There are internal and external circuits around the city of Marrakech, i.e. the High Atlas and the neighboring regions, which means that we have accommodated important tourist activities. Our museum, through its programming, is geared towards this type of visitor.
Normally, 55% of the museum's visitors are pupils and students with whom we work on the water challenges in Morocco, such as the preservation and responsible use of water for which we pay special attention in our capacity building and educational programs. The second largest group of visitors are tourists. We have about 30% of visitors who are tourists who come from about 33 nationalities (for the year 2023). They come to visit our museum and want to know about Morocco's hydraulic heritage.
Morocco is a region with an arid and semi-arid climate, under water stress exacerbated by the impact of climate change. This type of climate is so particular that Morocco has had to develop many techniques to respond to water scarcity. There are foreign universities from the United States, Europe, Asia, and Japan who come to see this hydraulic heritage and the techniques adopted by Morocco. They want to understand how Morocco managed water to face these challenges both nowadays and in the past.
Carlien Donkor: Can the hydraulic heritage you work with contribute to meeting current water challenges in your context of Marrakech or Morocco?
Abdennabi El Mandour: Morocco has 10 large basins for water management. We have management by basin and also a transfer of water from the northern basins to the center of the country. The distribution of water is not equal in the basins: The Loukous basin (Tangier and Tetouan region) receives more water, while other basins suffer a little. So, at the level of our museum, we are in close contact with these hydraulic agencies of Morocco, the 10 basins, with whom we work in the exhibitions that we present at the many water fairs that are held each year in Morocco. We have a close relationship with the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs, and the Ministry of Water and Equipment. We work a lot with Minister Nizar Barakat with whom we have had a close relationship on many projects, particularly to draft the water vision for Morocco, and to find solutions for updating regional heritage based on the study of ancient methods to address water shortages. We are trying to find solutions to store water in small basins, as was done in the past with Matfia: small storage of rainwater in arid and semi-arid regions that do not have water tables. In other words, it is about thinking about how to apply these traditional methods to the current management of water scarcity.
Carlien Donkor: What would you like for the future of your museum?
Abdennabi El Mandour: As of 2024, we have a program that is very well established, very well put together in terms of contacts with schools and universities, and tourists. We are in close contact with Moroccan families who live in Morocco and Moroccans who are all over the world. So we try to create a link between the museum and this type of visitors as well. We are very keen on international cooperation, with UNESCO, with WAMU-NET, and with other organizations. Moreover, Marrakech is a city that is very much in demand for major events on water and the first World Water Forum in Morocco was in Marrakech. Morocco has know-how in water management, international communication, and knowledge sharing with Africa and with countries that manage similar challenges. So Morocco, through the policy of King Mohammed VI, favors an opening to Africa and the whole world. Morocco gives and shares with countries that suffer from this inequality in the distribution of water on the globe.
Carlien Donkor: So what do you need to achieve this?
Abdennabi El Mandour: Cooperation. We need to work with organizations, whether domestically, with the hydraulic agencies and the Ministry of Water and Equipment, or internationally with UNESCO. We need to cooperate in the succession of different Water Forums in the future and work especially on the impact of climate change on water reservoirs, no matter if it is on the surface or underground, and on water desalination, on the reuse of greywater in the irrigation of green spaces.
So, our museum wants to highlight and share with visitors all this know-how.
Carlienn Donkor: Thank you again for this rich information. And good luck in your water museum in Marrakech.
Abdennabi El Mandour: Thank you for this invitation. Thank you for the number of questions you asked me. They are very important and well-focused. I think you prepared your interview well and in French too, thank you very much.
This interview has been translated from French for this article.
Acknowledgments
This blog post has been written in the context of discussions in the LDE PortCityFutures research community. It reflects the evolving thoughts of the authors and expresses the discussions between researchers on the socio-economic, spatial and cultural questions surrounding port city relationships. This blog was edited by the PortCityFutures editorial team: Wenjun Feng. In particular, we thank Carola Hein and Matteo D’Agostino for their valuable input and comments.