DISCUSSION WORKSHOPS
Dr. Hanane BENQLILOU
Water, Energy, and Environment’s Expert
Institute of Water and Sanitation IEA-ONEE,
MiftahEssad Foundation for Morocco’s Intangible Capital
Traditional water governance knowledge digitalization and valuation to face water scarcity in Africa:
Culture, Heritage and Perspectives
In Morocco, through century’s ancient civilizations have developed traditional
knowledge and best practices by an approach linking between water, energy,
agriculture and ecosystems that are sustainable and adapted to arid regions for
water governance. This innovative community water governance focused on water
resources preservation constitutes a sustainable solutions-based nature model to
face climate change in Africa.
For the resilience to the aridity context, the traditional water systems "Khettara" was
developed by local indigenous knowledge who allows to transport water by gravity
from the underground water resources to responds to the local population different
needs (irrigation, drinking water, ...) by digging natural wells, galleries and basins,
with local material resources and without recourse to any energy and by considering
the climatic context, water resources scarcity and ecosystem resilience.
As another ancient based nature-solutions, the ancient traditional Fes water and
sewage systems, are a model of water recycling through different Fes’s spiritual,
economic and domestic activities without any environmental impact. The Fes
ancestral water system allows the management of the water cycle through the
domestic, artisanal and recreational water uses until the sewage water system.
In the same vision of water scarcity resilience, the ancestral based - nature solutions
of rainwater harvesting were developed by the ancient ingenuity for rain water
storage in different regions of the kingdom trough centuries.
The good practices collected from Moroccan traditional knowledge on ancestral
water system “Khettara”, traditional water sewage and ancestral rainwater
harvesting techniques constitute basic elements and references for the development
of alternative solutions for water governance in Africa, that are impacted by the
effects of climate change and water scarcity.
In the context of Africa aridity, faced with the water and ecosystems preservation
challenge, it is necessary to capitalize and digitalize the Moroccan and all African
water heritage by using new data collection technology to share and value best
practices between African countries and regions.
Guidelines for data digitalisation to safeguard and valuated culture and heritage of
traditional water knowledge for preserving water and ecosystems in Africa is the
main milestone to allow the right to water to all African citizens.
These ancestral water systems nature-based solutions, which influence in the past
water and wastewater technologies development in Morocco and in many African
countries can serve as a basis for the development of drinking water and sanitation
for small low-income communities due to the absence of excessive costs related to
basic investments and operating costs and without energy, to contribute to the ODD6
achievement in Africa.
The South -South Partnership between African countries on ancestral and traditional
water systems knowledge capitalization, adaptation, valuation and sharing between
African countries through capacity building program, education and awareness-
raising and research and development constitutes an important perspective in the
areas of capitalisation and valuation of African Water heritage and culture to face the
scarcity and variability in time and space of water resources in Africa marked by
climate change impact.
Keywords: Traditional water system, Khettara, ancient sewage systems, solutions-
based nature, climate change, semi-arid regions, water stress, rainwater harvesting,
ecosystems , Culture , Heritage , South - South Partnership
Dr. Dominique BEROD
Chief of the hydrological monitoring and data management Section at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
More detailsFrom Data to Action:
Building the Value Chain to Address Climate and Hydrological Challenges.
This workshop focuses on identifying monitoring requirements and exploring ways to ensure a sustainable data-to-decision value chain, spanning hydrological modeling and forecasting.
More details are coming soon
Dr. Fairouz MEGDICH KHARRAT
Assistant professor of architecture and urbanism at the University of Sousse
Researcher at (ENAU-EDSIA, University of Carthage), Tunisia.
Co-Creating Water Knowledge CCWK
The discussion workshop aims to define Co-Creation and introduce it in the context of water
knowledge (Obj. 1), to present briefly the vision and mission through short-term, long-term and
ultimate objectives of the CCWK group and its set/adopted method and process (Obj. 2) (Castelli et
al., 2025).
Besides, the workshop aims to open the dialogue by to connecting various actors of water
knowledge, in the African context and beyond (Obj. 3), sharing some case studies (Obj. 4), and
inspiring scientific, institutional and social actors to consider in their approach the four cornerstones
of co-creation identified by the CCWK group (Inclusivity, Openness, Legitimacy & Actionability); thus,
initiating and sustaining relationships; Collaborative leadership; Key tools and techniques; and
Knowledge inclusion (Obj. 5).
The discussion workshop will be moderated by three members of the working group for the co-
creation of water knowledge (CCWK) within the HELPING decade of the IAHS, the chair inaugurates
the workshop and manages the different phases of the program. All members participate actively in
the planned activities (animate the debate, collect and display information, etc.). Participants are
invited to interact and engage with moderators and with each other and motivated by moderators
to significantly contribute to the discussion’s outcomes (sharing experiences, opinions, playing roles,
etc.). This will be implemented by an actor constellation exercise on “How can scientific and societal
actors contribute to co-creation in water knowledge? An acted case study”.