Morocco: sites for oasis revival in Tafilalet region

The first steps of the Oasi-Tafilalet programme (POT) have begun in Morocco after being launched in 2006 with the objective of starting projects which would bring a sustainable development to the region and have now seen the installation of construction sites for the 2012 plan. The 2012 plan begun yesterday led by Minister for habitat, Nadil Benabdellah and by the committee for the piloting of the sustainable land development programme for the Oasis of Tafilalet and is primarily based on the knowledge of the judicial context surrounding the oasis as also for the main natural and cultural values including the various ways the oasis can be exploited. Map agency reports that POT's objectives for 2012 are mainly to reinforce women's role in local development and to implement a product of eco-touristic quality, create systems which enable to save water and develop new agro-ecological techniques with their relative products which would have an agro-biological certification, other than develop an integration plan for alternative energy and also to conceive an eco-museum. The POT aims at safeguarding and developing all the oasis present in Morocco and has been awarded an initial budget of 33.5 million dirhams (about 3 million euro) which at the moment, thanks to the contribution from the Rural Development foundation, has risen to over 123 million dirhams (over 11 million euros).