Key results for the Case Studies

Understanding of social dynamics

Engaging in the construction of a multi-stakeholder process for the sustainable management of groundwater requires a detailed sociological understanding of the actors, power relationships, and dynamics of cooperation and conflict. In Morocco, the limited results of aquifer contracts to date are often attributed to farmers’ limited capacity for collective action capacity and their lack of motivation for a system that could restrict their open access to the aquifer.

The eGroundwater project team was aware of the importance of sociological knowledge. A PhD thesis in sociology was initiated to understand the motivations and barriers to collective action using an ethnographic approach deeply rooted in the field. The thesis helped unveil the social relationships surrounding access to groundwater, which unfold in moments of coalitions, tension, and conflicts around the water resource, where several social, economic, political, and ethnic issues are intertwined.

This is the case with socio-ethnic divisions, often invisible and latent, that structure access to the political and associative landscape and have a strong impact on the implementation of participatory management of groundwater resources. Without this sociological research dimension, these important realities for initiating and conducting multi-stakeholder workshops over 4 years would have gone unnoticed. These approaches, although crucial for untangling the complexity of collective action, are seldom or rarely used in action research projects. For more details on the outcome of this sociological analysis in the Moroccan case study, see Kchikech et al., 2024.

Trip to Spain

A trip was organized in Spain in October 2022, with local leaders who were also family farmers, a representative of a large-scale farm, staff members of the Ministry of Agriculture, and a staff member of the Sebou Catchment Management Agency (CMA). The trip included a visit to La Mancha Oriental groundwater user association and a visit to Requenia Utiel region (Spanish case study for eGroundwater).

This trip first enabled to show farmers that associations of irrigators can manage water shortage and preserve the resource in a sustainable way, and look for alternative solutions for all farmers (collective basins and boreholes, etc.). Second, the trip enabled to reduce the distance between farmers and institutional actors. Participants saw a case where public institutions jointly acted farmers to manage groundwater. Farmers understood that a “participative management” contract could be a framework for resolving a crisis situation rather than a framework for imposing new constraints. Farmers also understood that by forming an association, they would have more influence within the groundwater governance setting. Finally, social distances between family farmers and the representative of the large-scale farm decreased. See a video on the trip.

Community monitoring

In the Moroccan study area, the groundwater resource exploited by farmers is relatively modest in size on the scale of the country. As a result, it is not subject to any monitoring programme by the public authorities, either piezometric (measurement of water levels) or in terms of water quality. To make up for this shortcoming, the project team set up a community network to monitor groundwater levels. Around ten farmers have been equipped with a home-made piezometric probe enabling them to measure the water level in their wells on a monthly basis.

Setting up the network came up against a number of technical and social difficulties, which were a source of learning for both the project team and the farmers. After three years of trial and error, the socio-technical system has produced scientific data that is useful for understanding how the water table works (direction of flow, changes in stock levels). It has also made it possible to develop farmers’ understanding of how it works. The network should soon be taken over by associations of groundwater users. For more information, see the report (in French).

Joint building of knowledge of groundwater resources and uses

The context in which the project team worked was characterised by an almost total absence of information on the water resource and its uses. The team therefore set up an approach aimed at co-constructing the missing knowledge with groundwater users.

In addition to the community groundwater monitoring network described above, the project’s hydrogeologists used farmers’ knowledge to characterise the boundaries of the aquifer, its geometry (e.g. location of outcrops) and its hydrological functioning (e.g. historical analysis of the drying up of springs). They also focused their investigations on answering the questions asked by the farmers (e.g. recharge areas). This made it possible to build a shared vision of the resource.

In terms of water use, the project’s agronomists and geographers worked with the farmers to draw up a detailed map of crops on a plot-by-plot basis. They also called on the expertise of farmers to characterise irrigation practices and estimate the quantities of water withdrawn. For more information, see the report (in French).

In 2022, eGroundwater team installed a pilot experiment in the farms of two family farmers. The two farms use drip irrigation to irrigate plum trees. In a line of approximately 50 meters, the size of drippers was decreased from 16 l/hour to 8 l/hour. A water meter was installed at the head of the line, and another meter was installed on a parallel line, equipped with the 16 l/h drippers.

The two farmers were given Watermark probes so that they could make sure their trees were not stressed by lack of water. The outcome was a decrease by 47% of water used, without impacting the yield. Eventually, a workshop was held in November 2023 to discuss methods to decrease water use, farmers showed much interest.

Participants jointly built proposals for groundwater governance and management. They did so based on examples of functioning cases of groundwater governance in the Mediterranean (see Bouzidi et al., 2024).

The multistakeholder process enabled all participants to draft a groundwater management contract. This experience was among the first examples of a preparation of a groundwater management contract that really involved farmers in Morocco. The contract plans the creation of multi-stakeholder management committees. The main axes of the action plan scheduled in the drafted aquifer contract are: improving water demand management; search for new water sources; improving irrigation water efficiency ; scientific research and the co-production of knowledge by stakeholders; strengthening communication and awareness-raising.

In Morocco, the approach to build groundwater management contracts is based on two phases: one about signing the contract to officialise collaborative governance and then, once committees are created, to enter in the detailed aspects of management. This two-phase approach appears promising in a process of building trust between farmers and public organisations.

See more details in the report on improvement of groundwater governance of eGroundwater.

The Signing took place on October 29 in Loulé. The provisory commission that is working in implementing the agreement, has already met once and is working on writing the statures of a new association.

The provisory commission will make a presentation in the XIII Congreso Ibérico de Gestión y Planificación del Agua, April 2025. This agreement shows the joint will of the various sectors that use water from the aquifer (golf, tourism, agriculture and public green spaces), of associations that operate in the area, as well as of the public management bodies (APA Algarve, Loulé City Council and the CCDR-antiga DRAP-Alg, and Águas do Algarve) to work together to define and implement measures that will enable the protection and sustainable use of the aquifer. The agreement can be considered a historic milestone in groundwater management in Portugal. It inaugurates a more participatory management format, which could complement/respond to the management difficulties of public entities faced with a large number of abstractions spread across the territory.

This agreement is an initiative of the eGROUNDWATER project (2020-2024; funded by the PRIMA Horizon 2020 program), coordinated by ISEG – University of Lisbon and UALG. The Campina de Faro aquifer, Vale do Lobo subsystem, was chosen as a pilot for this participatory management because it is overexploited and has saltwater intrusion. In the participatory management model, an inter-sectoral and inter-institutional group will work together to design new management rules that support the sustainability of the aquifer and fair use.

After the signing, a provisional management committee with representation from users, public bodies and academia/university will work to design the governance structure that will make this agreement operational and present it to current and future signatories. The next step will be to define the strategy for advancing participatory management and implementing actions aimed at recovering the aquifer.

The collaboration agreement is born out of the eGROUNDWATER project and thus becomes a collective project of users and managers of the Campina de Faro Aquifer, with the support of civil society and the university, which it is hoped will become an example of participatory groundwater management in other aquifers in the Algarve and Portugal.

List of signatories

• Ana Sofia Silva Câmara Municipal de Loulé
• Ana Vicente de Brito e HamelInfraquinta, E.M.
• António Martins Águas do Algarve S.A.
• Carlos Carmo Camara Municipal de Loulé
• Carlos Ludovico CCDR Algarve
• Carlos Manso Infralobo E.M.
• Celine de Brito Property Owners Association – Vale do Lobo Resort
• Edite Reis APA Algarve
• Horacio Carvalho Câmara Municipal de Loulé
• Hugo Miguel Nunes Águas do Algarve S.A.
• Judite Fernandes LNEG
• Lidia Terra Câmara Municipal de Loulé
• Luís Costa APA Algarve
• Luis Nunes UALG
• Luis Rebelo Vale do Lobo Golf course
• Marilyn Zacarias Infraquinta, E.M.
• Marta Nieto Romero ISEG /U. Lisboa
• Marta Varanda ISEG /U. Lisboa
• N’zinga Miami Silva Aproquila – Qiunta do Lago
• Paulo Cruz APA /Algarve
• Paulo Bota Quinta do Lago S.A.
• Pedro Coelho APA / Algarve
• Pedro Monteiro CCDR Algarve
• Regina Casimiro  Infralobo E.M.
• Ricardo Correia Vita Nativa
• Robert Lambert Property Owners Association – Vale do Lobo Resort
• Sandra Rosário Associação In Loco
• Sergio Marinho  Vitacress
• Silvério Guerreiro Aguas do Algarve S.A.
• Sofia Bento ISEG / U.Lisboa
• Sonia Afonso Quinta do Lago S. A
• Tomás Melo Gouveia Tropical Lda.
• Vânia Sousa UAlg

The news from the agreement were widely published in the region of Algarve  and in websites of signatories

• Vale do Lobo: Aquífero Campina de Faro vai ter proteção e ter uso sustentável
• Águas do Algarve assina acordo com várias entidades para gestão e preservação do aquífero Campina de Faro
• Assinatura de acordo de colaboração para a proteção e utilização do subsistema Vale do Lobo no aquífero Campina de Faro – Algarve 7
• https://regiao-sul.pt/ambiente/aguas-do-algarve-assina-acordo-para-a-preservacao-de-recursos-hidricos/689938
• Acordo de colaboração para a proteção e utilização do subsistema Vale do Lobo no Aquífero Campina de Faro – Mais Algarve