Building a reservoir in Tagounite for field irrigation

Dear people,

My name is Keno, I am currently in the south-east of Morocco for an internship while doing research on climate change and its effects on people in the region of M’hamid and Tagounite. In relation to this I am collecting donations for my long-time friend Khalid Benabbou and his family from Tagounite.

He and his family live in the small town of Tagounite, located very far south of the Draa-River Region in Morocco. He, his wife Hind and their three young children, 9yo Bara'a, 6yo Jacoub and 1yo Rait, live just outside the city where they used to have a very green and lush garden with many fruits and vegetables growing under the shade of the palm trees.

The landscape has changed a lot in the past years. For 6 years now the region is facing a drought and no one knows when rain will fall again. Palm trees amongst others have mostly dried out supplying almost no shade to the remaining plants. Next to the cities wells for general water distribution, people start building their own wells to make up for the water shortage.

So did Khalid and his family. They hired to company to dig a well after the old one ran dry. Unfortunately his financial situation does not allow them to finish the project they started. The well is already there supplying just enough water for his current fields.

Now they mean to build a large, covered water basin next to the fields so so they can be watered evenly and at night. The current situation only allows them to access the well-water during the day, since the don’t have batteries to store the energy provided by the solar panles. However, building a water basin is more cost-effective than batteries, as the batteries have to be replaced every 3-5 years.

The construction of the water basin will be done by a construction worker, plus the material costs (stone, cement, tiles, metal, etc.) and finally the laying of the hoses to the individual fields. The price for the basin is €2000. The basin is planned to have a volume of 8x4x1.50 metres.

Khalid is happy about every donation and we hope that this project will soon be realised.