The Governance of Water Resources: Values, Traditions and Contemporary Policies

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1 THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY (International) in the United Kingdom Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations The Governance of Water Resources: Values, Traditions and Contemporary Policies Date: March 2015 Organisers: AKU-ISMC and CGDA Venue: Conseil Général du Développement Agricole (CGDA), Rabat, Morocco Abstract: World religions offer a wealth of principles for the guidance of believers in matters related to the use of water. Their sacred texts, as well as traditions from their early holy men, have addressed matters related to water in strong and poetic language, which has fed preaching and common discourses around the world for centuries. However, one has to go beyond preaching and common wisdom to find some of the most creative, and simultaneously effective and elegant, arrangements designed for the management of water resources where they happen to be scarce and essential to the livelihood of entire communities. In the case of Muslim communities, which came to predominate in areas where early civilisations emerged in connection to centralised management of water resources (Ancient Egypt, Summer and Babylon in Mesopotamia, civilisations born around the Ganges etc.), the greatest challenges in the management of water resources were met by creative regulation systems based on, and legitimised through, interpretations of the sacred corpus. From Central Asia to North Africa, not only in great rivers valleys such as the Nile, the Euphrates and the Ganges, but in many areas across the region called the Oecumene of Nile-to-Oxus by the historian Marshall Hodgson, it was often local communities, with the help of their religious clerics, who found solutions which were often very well adapted to their needs, and which allowed for optimal distribution and use of their water supplies (although sometimes the distribution was suboptimal, but perceived as equitable). The arrangements in place benefitted from consensual adhesion and support of the local population, as they were designed or at least legitimised by local religious leaders. This enabled the arrangements to be maintained, refined, or even, sometimes, updated in ways that served the communities independently from the central branches of the state 1. In a way, empires, kingdoms and 1 However, in cases between riparian communities sharing the same river, other problems occur. These concern fit, i.e. incompatibility between local institutional arrangements and bio-physical systems, as well as problems of interplay, i.e. interactions between different institutions horizontally - between communities - and vertically between communities and central branches of the states in question.

2 principalities could come and go, local areas could be distributed in different ways between various polities, and despite this, the water governance arrangements in place could be kept safe and functioning because they were local and because they were grounded in the fundamental beliefs of the populations. Only in a few specific cases, such as the Mongol invasion of the Iranian plateau and the Fertile Crescent (which culminated in the siege of Baghdad in 1258), and the Christian Reconquista in Spain (tenth to fifteenth century CE), were the irrigation systems seriously damaged and the working arrangements brought to a halt, causing serious problems for the populations concerned, be they on the side of the invader or the invaded. In current times, modern states which were put in place throughout the region have had to face entirely new challenges. Broadly speaking, closed or semi-closed local communities have often been replaced by large and overpopulated cities that need to be fed and whose water needs have to be met by the same resources (or even less) that were available to communities in the past. Modernisation and importation of new techniques in the exploitation, distribution and use of water resources - including dams high and low, complex irrigation systems and redistribution of resources across national territories - were thought to have provided adequate solutions to face the challenges, old and new, familiar and unprecedented. However, solutions adopted in modern times have not delivered as expected. Many countries find themselves in situations where they are confronted with serious challenges, much more serious than any faced in the past, including some originating in forms of behaviour predominant within the concerned populations. The consensus which supported traditional systems or arrangements, together with the sense of religious duty in attitudes towards water and its use, seem to have faded away without modern rationality having been able to provide alternative solutions that work. In order to explore these questions, a 1.5-day workshop will be held to bring together around ten experts who are familiar with both the workings of traditional systems and of modern policies. The workshop would offer an opportunity to critically review the question of governance of water resources in relation to approaches adopted both in the past and in modern times. The workshop will address questions such as: 1. What solutions were implemented by populations that had to face the challenge of water scarcity or irregular supply (where water was a rare commodity) and how did they manage to enact these solutions when consensus was needed? 2. How did pre-modern societies reach consensus on practical rules in the realm of water management? What role did religious traditions play in defining consensual rules and keeping them in action? 3. What relationships were built between water management systems and centralised political systems that were in place? 4. Are there any lessons to be learned from traditional water management systems, the ways in which they were designed, kept in action and shielded from macro politics? 5. Do we need renewed religious discourses on the use of water resources? How can the values advocated in sacred texts help communities to better face the challenges which lie ahead.

3 THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY (International) in the United Kingdom Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations The Governance of Water Resources: Values, Traditions and Contemporary Policies March 12-13, Rabat, Morocco Programme Thursday, March 12, :30 10 :10 Opening Session Pr Mohamed Ait Kadi Increasing Water Security through Effective Governance Dr David Taylor Governance and water Dr Abdou Filali-Ansary Opening statement 10:10 11:20 Session 1 Pr Luis Veiga Da Cunha Our water, our future Pr Klaus M. Leisinger Global values for global development Discussion 11:20-11:40 Coffee break 11: Session 2 Pr Mohamed El Faiz L'héritage hydraulique arabo-musulman: leçons pour une gestion durable et équitable de l'eau Pr Tariq Madani L eau dans le monde musulman médiéval: les grands débats

4 Dr David Groenfeldt Water Ethics: A Values Approach to Solving the Water Crisis Discussion 13:10 14 :30 Lunch 14:30-16 :00 Session 3 Pr Abdellah Herzenni Communauté rurale et gestion de l'irrigation Pr Grigori Lazarev Valeurs communautaires et gestion de l eau, entre tradition et héritage Pr Houria Tazi Le droit à l eau Discussion 16:00-16 :30 Coffee break 16:30 17 :30 Closing Session Concluding debate Summary discussion Moderator Dr Abdou Filali-Ansary Concluding statement Pr Mohamed Ait Kadi 20:00-22 :00 Dinner hosted by AKU-ISMC

5 Friday, March 13, :00 20:00 Visit to Fes (optional) hosted by Pr O. Assobhei, President, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fes 8:00 Departure from hotel La Tour Hassan 11:00 12:30 o Pr O. Assobhei Welcoming remarks o Pr Tariq Madani Le réseau hydraulique de la Medina de Fes: mécanisme et gestion 12 :30 14 :30 Lunch hosted by President O. Assobhei 14 :30 17 :30 Visit to Fes Medina Return to Rabat

6 THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY (International) in the United Kingdom Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations The Governance of Water Resources: Values, Traditions and Contemporary Policies Date: 1-day workshop, 12 March 2015 Visit to Fes on 13 March optional Organisers: AKU-ISMC and CGDA Venue: Conseil Général du Développement Agricole, Rabat, Morocco Workshop Participants Speakers: Mohammed El Faiz David Groenfeldt Abdellah Herzenni Grigori Lazarev Klaus Michael Leisinger Tariq Madani Luis Veiga da Cunha Houria Tazi Sadeq Author of Histoire de l hydraulique arabe Author of Water Ethics: A Values Approach to Solving the Water Crisis Author of L'amenagement hydro-agricole de la Moyenne Tessaout Ex-member of the Investissement Center of FAO, author of several publications on agrarian structures and agriculture and rural development President, Foundation Global Values Alliance, Professor of Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility, University of Basel Professor at the University of Oujda, Morocco Member of the Portuguese Academy of Sciences, co-author of the book Water and the Future of Humanity Lawyer and holder of UNESCO Chair in water management, EHTP, Casablanca and President of MAGHREB-MACHREQ Alliance for Water Invitees: Omar Assobhei Mohamed Badraoui Ahmed El Bouari Brahim Hafid Ahmed El Hassani Mohamed Naciri Driss Ouazzar Noureddine El Oufi Bachir Saoud Organisers: Mohamed Ait Kadi Abdou Filali-Ansary David Taylor Charlotte Whiting President, General Council of Agricultural Development, Morocco Governance Project Lead, AKU-ISMC Director, AKU-ISMC Governance Project Manager, AKU-ISMC

- 20 hours of Arabic before traveling. Fri., May 31: Leave for Morocco.

- 20 hours of Arabic before traveling Fri., May 31: Leave for Morocco. Day 1, Sat., June 1: Arrive in Tangier (around noon). 1:00-5:00: Rest. 5:00-8:00: face-to-face introductions and orientation; city