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Changes and challenges along the northern edge of the Sahara. A comparative approach
Dr. Andrea Corsale
University of Cagliari (Italy)
The region of the pre-Saharan oases of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia shows some relatively
homogeneous physical and human features that can facilitate a comparative study on the
relationship between people and natural resources. Some important elements of differentiation,
though, must always be taken into account in a comparative approach that aims at analysing an
area that is almost 3,000 km wide:
1) the different stocks of water resources (perennial rivers, widian, springs, groundwater, deep
aquifers);
2) the different socio-economic and environmental policies adopted by Morocco, Algeria and
Tunisia after their independence.
The combination of different resources and policies has produced interesting results and a
geographical reflection on sustainable development in arid and semi-arid environments is highly
topical and useful.
This reflection will be carried on through a comparison between three case studies that present
considerable bioclimatic variety but also some significant common features.
The main criterion that led to the choice of the three areas is that of their physical size and their
socio-economic weight within the three Countries and within the whole of the pre-desert belt.
In Morocco the region of Tafilalt and the upper Ziz valley (Province of Errachidia, South-Eastern
Morocco), the largest system of oases in the whole Country and the legendary magnificence of the
town of Sijilmassa proves the antiquity of its agricultural and commercial traditions.
In Algeria the region of the Ziban (Wilaya of Biskra, central Algeria), rich in streams, springs and
groundwater resources, includes a large number of oases whose demographic and economic
weight has lately turned it into the most important agricultural area of the whole pre-desert region
of the Maghreb.
In Tunisia the oasis of Nefzaoua (Governorate of Kebili, South-Western Tunisia) was chosen
thanks to the spectacular agricultural development that recently outshined the ancient fame of the
Djerid. The Nefzaoua system is fed by springs and aquifers and, in spite of its relatively small size,
is often held up as an example of economic success.
As a whole, the pre-Saharan oases of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia appear to be located along
an evolutional path leading from pre-colonial systems to modern agriculture but they are situated in
different phases. The transformation of these old agricultural and trade powers into isolated
communities oriented towards self-sufficiency, a process that occurred at different times in the
three Countries, was followed, between the 1930s and the 1980s, by a phase of different policies.
Morocco’s conservatism, Algeria’s experimental socialism and Tunisia’s moderate laissez-faire
have produced various and controversial results. Starting from the 1980s, as a consequence of the
world’s economic climate and because of the relative success of the policies experimented by
Tunisia, the model of small-scale agricultural capitalism has quickly spread. The use of the term
“capitalism” is justified by the final consolidation of monetary economy and by the importance of
migrants’ remittances and investments.
The growing disengagement by the State, which occurred in the three countries, happened in
different forms.
In the oases of Morocco the traditional socio-economic and cultural system, which managed to
survive till recent times in the rural areas thanks to the support of the monarchy, started to
collapse. The gradual opening of the Country to the outside world has freed social and economic
forces that, in spite of somewhat contradictory policies, have largely overshadowed the old local
potentates as interlocutors for the political authorities.
In Algeria the abandonment of the ambitious and costly plans of collectivization and
industrialization supported by State funds was sharp and traumatic, but it was also softened, in its
most negative effects, by the strong support given to small capitalistic production, which is
probably going to play a more and more important role in international trade. The agricultural
development was not accompanied, though, by a parallel industrial development, hampered by the
political instability of the Country.
In Tunisia the end of the early socialist policies was rewarded by a spectacular economic
development, which, in the pre-desert areas, benefited large-scale commercial agriculture and
tourism. The State investments, unlike Algeria, were not dramatically cut. The creation of new
oases, a territorial experimentation that is going on in several areas, tends, nevertheless, to
strengthen capitalist production.
As a whole, we can distinguish three evolutional stages that characterized the 20th Century in the
area:
1)
between 1900 and 1950 the pre-colonial economic system, based on traditional water
management, agriculture and caravan trade, went through a final crisis. It is the “age of
changes” (military defeat of the nomads, abolition of slavery, foundation of towns and
modern administration, development of communications, sedentarization, education,
demographic growth, etc) which destroys a century-old balance;
2)
between 1950 and 1980 the demographic growth had a negative impact on a stagnant
economic system; as a result, emigration became a mass phenomenon and started to
threaten the future of these human communities. It is the “age of crisis”, mainly faced with
State interventions concentrated on large-scale hydraulics;
3)
after 1980 State intervention started to recede, leaving room to a spectacular agricultural
and urban development. It is the “age of revival”, characterized by the success of agrarian
capitalism, by the spread of small-scale private water management and by the irruption of
tourism.
This apparently optimistic picture hides environmental problems and challenges that cause
widespread concern but are still rather underestimated by the public authorities and often
deliberately neglected.
These themes become clearer and more concrete when taken down to the local scale:
1) The Tafilalt region (Morocco) is still characterized by the considerable political influence of
local notables, religious authorities and village assemblies. Capitalist development, desired by the
younger generations, is hampered by the lack of a real agrarian reform, by smallholding and by the
predominance of traditional water management. Due to the lack of policies able to answer the
social expectations, water use tends to be uncontrolled and causes serious environmental
problems, even though the availability of renewable water resources (perennial rivers) can
guarantee, as a perspective, a relatively well-balanced economic development. Because of the
increasing water exploitation in the upper valley, though, desertification in the southernmost oases
seems to be worsening. Population growth is still strong but the most interesting element is its
largely spontaneous redistribution, which is advantaging urban centres and road axes. The
economic and demographic barycentre has brusquely moved northwards and tends to coincide
with Errachidia, the only properly urban centre in the region. The Saharan border, characterized by
a poor and declining agriculture, tends to become a mere tourist attraction;
2) The Ziban area (Algeria) has experienced socialist socio-economic experiments that largely
eradicated the traditional organization, but the most relevant transformations occurred over the
past 20 years, when agrarian capitalism, strongly supported by the Government, reshaped the
region turning it into the main agricultural producer in the whole Sahara, fully integrated in the
national food trade. Water resources are abundant and renewable, infrastructures are relatively
modern. The geographic position facilitates its role as a link between the Mediterranean and the
Sahara. Environmental problems locally show serious dimensions, also because of the high
consumption volume in the agricultural and urban sectors, but there are solid bases to guarantee a
sustainable development. Demographic growth is still intense and economic development revolves
around the main town, Biskra, which keeps an absolutely dominant role. The minor urban centres
basically work as trade markets for the rich agricultural productions of the region;
3) The Nefzaoua region (Tunisia) represents a successful model of economy founded on
agrarian capitalism and commercial plantations. The Government policies turned it into the main
economic pole in South-western Tunisia, ideal scenery for experimental territorial systems like the
new oases created to host high-quality food production. Nefzaoua dates dominate the European
market and local vegetables are conquering the national one, also through the success of
greenhousing. The traditional socio-economic system has almost disappeared, infrastructures are
largely modern and tourism, unlike Tafilalt and Ziban, plays a major role, even though its real
impact is relatively modest. The spectacular economic development of Nefzaoua, however, is
based on non-renewable water resources, which threatens the future of the region. Land planning,
even if relatively advanced, is not fully able to restrain uncontrolled water use, yet. Demographic
growth is quickly decreasing. Since there is not a single dominant pole, the economy revolves
around the three centres of Kebili, Douz and Souk Lahad, creating a dynamic system of great
interest.
These three case studies are traditionally affected by a development delay when compared to
the respective national averages, but this delay has quickly decreased over the past 20 years.
Small-scale agrarian capitalism seems to be the way towards success for the pre-Saharan
regions. The pre-desert belt of the Maghreb is now a dynamic and active space, which never
hosted such a large population in the past. The changes, compared to a pre-colonial age
characterized by subsistence economy and demographic stagnation, are very impressive.
Population grows but distributes differently concentrating in those areas (towns and main roads)
that facilitate an ideal escape from the deprivation experimented during most of the 20th Century.
Physical isolation diminishes, migrations and cultural exchanges multiply, and towns grow
spreading new lifestyles and new consumption habits. New professions arise together with new
relationships between social groups. Agriculture, benefiting from important private investments
mostly deriving from migrants’ remittances, is currently the most flourishing economic branch,
followed at long distance by the tourist sector. Agricultural production is growing and specializing,
showing a clear tendency towards the integration in national and international markets. Highquality date production is increasing following to the international demand, new cultivations are
taking place (olive trees, vegetables, hard wheat, and fodder), making the agricultural landscape
more and more similar to the Mediterranean one, milk cow breeding is expanding. The traditional
varieties of dates and cereals are declining, as well as extensive breeding. Following the growing
food demand coming from urban population, traditional and agricultural methods are quickly being
replaced by modern techniques. This process is particularly advanced in Tunisia, less in Algeria
and Morocco.
Tourism, linked with the spectacular development of transportation, is emerging as an economic
alternative able to employ the young people who abandon the agricultural world, even though its
impact is still currently limited to a few Moroccan and Tunisian oases. It is mainly an itinerant kind
of tourism, based on large hotels managed by external entrepreneurs, with relatively little benefits
for the local economic fabric. It is also interesting to notice, however, that “alternative” tourism, with
all of its different faces (sport, ecology, architecture, folklore, gastronomy, spas, etc), is clearly
spreading, even with very little support from the Governments, and is already a significant reality in
several communities. Alternative tourism, thanks to a more direct relationship with local population,
is able to start virtuous circles that can lead to interesting examples of auto-centred development,
especially through the contribution of migrants’ remittances.
These mainly positive elements, however, must not hide the fact that this development model is
hardly sustainable by the natural environment. Water shortage, which, during the 20th Century,
emerged as the most serious menace to the future of the north-Saharan oases and steppes, is a
difficult problem. It is clear, in fact, that the perception of scarcity is relative. In regions located at
the edge of the largest desert in the world, it is obvious that local people have always had to face
periods of extreme ad often dramatic drought. The shifting of sand dunes, the formation of salt
deserts, soil erosion and bio-climatic oscillations, are all natural phenomena, which can be locally
worsened by human actions but show their worst effects only where anthropic communities settled
in marginal lands. The population increase that occurred during the 20th Century, associated with
the impressive growth of consumptions, was accompanied by a considerable improvement in the
standard of living and by a spectacular agricultural development. As a consequence, the offer of
water had to be augmented at very fast pace on the initiative of both public and private sectors.
The policies for the control of water demand, such as the fixing of a higher water price and
sanctions for illegal and excessive water exploitation, are generally neglected in order to avoid
protests by the population. Measures for productive and allocative efficiency are being
implemented, instead. In the new agricultural areas new techniques like waterproofed irrigation
canals, drop irrigation and greenhouses able to reduce evaporation are quickly spreading. Tunisia
and Morocco, especially along the coast, are experimenting techniques for water re-use that lead
to considerable water saving. In case of sectoral conflicts, where it is not possible to indefinitely
augment water offer, some measures for allocative efficiency have been implemented, favouring
urban, industrial and tourist use while sacrificing the agricultural sector (especially in Ouarzazate
and Tozeur).
Measures aiming at expanding the offer of water keep attracting much more attention than those
aiming at reducing its demand. Both Governmental policies, with their medium-lived investments
and infrastructures, and the small-scale household-based capitalism, whose investments have
immediate but short-lived results, present high risks of environmental unsustainability caused by a
chronic lack of balance between a steady or decreasing water availability and an ever-growing
water demand, pushed by a quick improvement in the standard of living and by the growing
economic activism of the population. The authorities do not seem fully able or willing to intervene in
order to control the semi-spontaneous economic development that is taking place.
The growth of water consumption, which reflects the improvement in the standard of living,
derives from the spread of western lifestyles that originated in physical environments that are very
different from the steppe, which creates a difficultly manageable human pressure.
On the long term, it is necessary to evaluate if it is profitable to exploit all the available resources
in order to keep marginal regions alive, or if it would be better to concentrate human activities in
more favourable areas, like coastal regions. These are different geographical models that are
being debated and studied all over the world. The example of the Libyan Great Man-Made River,
which is transferring Sahara’s water resources from the desert to the coast, instead of using them
on the stop, shows how difficult these choices are.
Is pre-desert agriculture sustainable over the long term? The answer is not sure, because water
resources are heavily exploited and consumption keeps growing, but modern technologies and
rigorous land planning, together with bold and wilful allocative choices, can lead to a positive
answer. The case of the Ziban area, where economic success is based on relatively abundant
water resources, shows on one hand that productive agriculture in arid and semi-arid lands is
possible, but on the other hand it seems like an exceptional case. Tafilalt, in fact, shows higher
risks due to the irregularity of a dying hydrographical system, while Nefzaoua, an extreme case,
bases its current fortune on the use of substantially non-renewable aquifers. The other oases of
the region, of smaller size and importance, show the same tendencies and uncertainties.
A comparative approach, with a multidisciplinary and systemic vision of the problems and
tendencies occurring in the oases and steppes of the pre-desert belt of the three countries, is thus
necessary. The historical perspective, which compares the pre-colonial socio-economic systems
and the present-day realities, and the geographical method, which combines the analysis of
physical and human factors, makes it possible to fully understand the processes of desertification
and the current transformations. Besides a temporary differentiation of economic policies that
occurred during the 20th Century, the model of modern household-based enterprise, and, partly,
that of commercial plantation, can easily fit the renewed socio-economic activism of the population.
This conclusion partly clashes with some beliefs that are deep-rooted in common opinion,
according to which the different political history of the three Countries would have moulded three
kinds of society with different economic and cultural ambitions and expectations. The lifestyles that
are spreading in this area, with their complex environmental and economic impacts, show the deep
unity of the northern rim of the Sahara. Another myth that should be avoided is the conservatism of
the oases dwellers. Young families, in fact, appear to be very open and often willing to reject
traditional knowledge in order to guarantee themselves a better future, along with the outside
world’s tendencies.
This evolution, though, implies serious environmental problems and challenges and can
compromise the tourist appeal of the region. Tourism, which is currently the only sector able to
guarantee a certain diversification of the economy, would push towards the opposite direction, the
conservation of the traditional socio-economic system.
In no case, as we could see, the use of water resources corresponds to the principles of
sustainable and durable development, which, in the past, were assured with very heavy human
costs. It is also necessary to evaluate the risks of the loss of the historical and cultural heritage that
is currently accompanying the fast modernization of northern-Saharan society.
Even with the different characteristics and possible different future perspectives (good in the
Ziban area, more risky in the Tafilalt and Nefzaoua oases), the same evolutional tendencies can be
observed in a very wide area that, even if divided into three Countries, still shows the signs of a
millenary shared history and requires a common reflection on sustainable development along the
Northern edge of the Sahara.