Clean Drinking Water for 1250 Villagers in Morocco

The High Atlas Foundation, partnering with the organization of the Moroccan Community in the United States, in the municipality of Ait Oum el Bekht in the region of Beni Mellal, in order to build a clean water system that will ultimately service 700 homes. The immediate goal is that the already constructed water tower will meet the clean drinking water needs of 40 households. In order to achieve this, the High Atlas Foundation is dedicated to raising support in order to purchase the water pipes that will enable water delivery. 

The municipality and local association have partnered to dig the trenches in which the water pipes will be laid and buried. Our focus now is to require the pipes in order to complete this important project. We thank you, our friends and supporters for all the generous giving that you have done this year and previous years and that you, your families, and your friends have a successful and happy new year and every year to come. 

Here and here are two links to photo albums where the community beneficiaries of this water project identified this initiative as most important to them.

In the Ait Taleb located in the Rhamna province, the High Atlas Foundation completed an assessment and developed a proposal to build clean drinking water systems located next to schools, which would benefit entire villages. In rural Morocco, it is commonplace that schools do not have access to clean drinking water and bathroom facilities. Installation of the drinking water systems ensures that children will participate in education with this most basic necessity while their villages and communities also benefit from this health initiative. 

The Rhamna region is semi-arid and the project involves digging wells, building water basins and towers, and installing pipes, as well as experiential training, in order for the initiative to be maintained by the local people.

In total, 18 schools will gain access to clean drinking water, with a total school population of 1,505. The total population of the village communities that will benefit is 4,728. Furthermore, health and hygiene education workshops will be conducted with the school children which will also incorporate a gendered perspective because the installation of clean drinking water increases girl’s participation in education (according to the world bank, 2013). Finally, the provision of water will also enable the planting botanical gardens at these schools, which will increase student awareness of the environmental and economic importance of organic cultivation of medicinal plants and fruit trees.