Grand canal: An infrastructure scheme implemented with vision and determination has revolutionized living in a village in the high Atlas - Ait Iktel, Morocco - Brief Article

Architectural Review, The, Nov, 2001

Ait Iktel is a small Berber settlement in the High Atlas mountains of Morocco. Until recently, it had no electricity, nor proper water supply, its families lived at subsistence level. Almost every one had a member who worked in the cities or abroad, which provided the small amount of cash available. Aided by the French Association Migrations et Developpement, which was set up to facilitate technology and people transfer from Europe to former colonies, villager Au Amahan set up a foundation to provide his native settlement with basic infrastructure.

Together, the community worked to electrify the village, improve access to education and medical care and to irrigate areas of land previously too arid to produce crops. With local labour and resources, a two and a half kilometre canal, the seguia, was built of reinforced concrete, with a stone aqueduct over the valley that can also carry pedestrians. Nearly 30 hectares of land have been newly brought under cultivation, more than a tenth of the traditional agricultural area.

Domestic water is provided by a filtration plant and a cistern that holds three days' supply for the whole village. Now, the women can draw water from fountains in each of the three village centres so they have been able to avoid long tramps to distant sources: 85 per cent of girls between four and 19 are at school or in literacy classes -- an amazing achievement in a very poor part of a poor country.

A diesel generator, providing supply for four hours a day, was set up in a rough stone-built hut, which has been extended to make a library. Electricity is used for cooking, so the deforestation of local hillsides has been reduced. A traditional stone house has been restored as an informal education centre. People have better lives because of investment of practical imagination. Ait lktel is an example to the region and several of its lessons are being reinterpreted in local villages.