By Aleksander Esmann HAF Intern The webinar “Water Management in Action for Productive, Climate Resilient Food Systems” took place on March 22, 2023, as a side event of the UN 2023 Water Conference. The event explored how irrigation systems in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and North Africa can be scaled sustainably to achieve sustainable

– اليوم العالمي للمياه : أثر التغيرات المناخية على حقوق الإنسان, Masra Lyoum. بقلم أميمة خليل الفن، مؤسسة الأطلس الكبير رشاشات تسقي شتلات أشجار الفاكهة في مشتل تسيره نساء في جبال الأطلس الكبير، المغرب. يوليوز 2021. تصوير: مؤسسة الأطلس الكبير يحتفل العالم في 22 مارس من كل سنة باليوم العالمي للمياه، وهي مناسبة ترتكز على زيادة

Hanna Tuoriniemi HAF Intern (Image from the UN Sustainable Development Platform’s official Facebook page) On January 18th, the United Nations preceded their 2023 Water Conference to be held in March with a multi-stakeholder thematic webinar entitled Preparing for the Water Conference and the Water Action Agenda. The event proved to be an effective catalyst for

By Hanna Tuoriniemi, HAF Intern and University of Michigan Student Water has a complex relationship with the Sustainable Development Goals. On one hand, water is a necessity that everyone deserves access to. However, water can also be dangerous in terms of climate change, when we experience an increase in flooding and hurricanes. How will we

Kelsey Cashman HAF-UVA Intern Cover Photo: The 50m well in Rhamna with no water, Photo by K.Cashman The village had no water. On the day I traveled to Rhamna to talk to the President of the Ait Taleb rural municipality about our proposal for solar-paneled wells, there was no water. Their current well dropped 50

By Karam-Yane Azzabi, HAF Program Manager The French NGO Le Partenariat has been engaging in activities surrounding water access, management, and sanitation in the Marrakech-Safi region of Morocco for the past nine years. Recently, they held a conference on their PAEMS 2020-2021 project among rural schools.  The project provides access to water and sanitation in

By: Salma Derkaoui, HAF Volunteer “Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” —W. H. Auden World Water Day has been an internationally celebrated day on March 22 of every year since 1992. This day is a global occasion to demonstrate the importance of water in our lives and showcase the vital role of

By Karam-Yane Azzabi, Program Manager Local authorities of Ait Oum El Bekht and Zaouia Cheikh discuss Douar Ghirane water project  On February 14th and 15th, HAF Program Manager Karam-Yane Azzabi met the local authorities of Ait Oum El Bekht and Zaouia Cheikh (Beni Mellal province) in order to discuss how the water project of Douar

By Bobby McDonough HAF-UVA Intern Clean drinking water. This fundamental resource in allowing a civilization’s continued function, health, and prosperity is often taken for granted. That isn’t to say that its importance is neglected, but instead that the threats of its inaccessibility and the effects of unclean drinking water can often go unacknowledged. The U.N.

By: Sarah Whiteside, UVA-HAF Intern Link to Image: https://disasterdisplacement.org/disaster-displacement-at-cop26 The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more popularly known as COP26, began on November 3rd and was a collaborative conference among 197 nations to address progress made in the first five years of the 2015 Paris Agreement. In this agreement, participating countries committed to efforts

By Mustapha Tarhbaloute, HAF Field Monitor Renewable energy in Morocco is like a newborn, in the relatively early stages of development. It has become more popular in the last two decades as a step to overcome the huge expense of electricity as well as a way to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Thanks to the High

By Timo Reinitzer, HAF intern What is the proper response to climate change? We all know that climate change is going to have an immense impact on our ecosystem, especially on water distribution. The question is rather what those will be and how to migite them. Africa will particularly face severe water shortages. As Professor

By Alyssa Underwood HAF-UVA Intern The global water crisis is caused by a scarcity of clean water available to people all around the world. Only 3% of the Earth’s water is freshwater, and much of that is frozen in glaciers and icebergs. Globally, one in nine people lack access to potable water. This crisis will

by Errachid Montassir Errachid Montassir is from the Rhamna province of Morocco and is a High Atlas Foundation manager of the USAID Farmer-To-Farmer program. He was an organizer of the first United Nations Youth Climate Summit in New York during 2019. This article is about a brilliant water supply system invented by indigenous people—Khettara—which helped

By Jasiah Hasan In the past fifty years, Morocco’s population has nearly tripled. Mass migrations and urbanization have pushed more than half of the growing population into cities, producing huge shanty towns. Residents lack access to clean water and sanitation services. Such barriers can lead to higher risk of waterborne diseases, such as malaria and

By Aira Matin, HAF-UVA Intern Education in rural Morocco is a work in progress. Building from the core of the community, there is a need for a better investment in education as well as promoting the power of giving girls an education. Yet some communities in rural Morocco often do not see the value in

Written by MAP Ecology in Arabic Translated into English by Kaoutar Ait Lahaj, HAF Program Coordinator The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) celebrated the inauguration of a solar irrigation system in the Akrich nursery in the rural commune of Tamslouht, Al-Haouz province. The nursery produces seedlings intended for later distribution to regional farmers and schools. The

Why Morocco Must Address Climate Change’s Threats to Water Resources, Morocco World News, By Megan Williams and Megan Sprotte HAF-UVA Interns. Megan Sprotte and Megan Williams HAF-UVA Interns Climate change is impacting water resources in Morocco, creating aggravated conditions as a result of both the environmental characteristics and social vulnerability that are present in the

Megan Williams HAF-IVA Intern According to the World Health Organization, in 2017, 5.3 billion people used safely managed drinking-water services located on premises, available when needed, and free from contamination1. However, this leaves approximately 2.2 billion people without such access, with around 1.4 billion people with basic services (an improved water source within a 30-minute

Carlie Daniel HAF-UVA Intern Development. When many people hear this word, they think of infrastructure and improved education but do not necessarily think about the challenges and processes that convert a place to a developed area. Participatory methods have been shown to have many benefits and positive outcomes as a method of development including helping

October 2020 – Program partners, Ecosia and USAID’s Farmer-to-Farmer, visit the solar-powered irrigation system at a HAF tree nursery in Ouarzazate province. Photo by Project Assistant, Hassan Ait Ouatouch.  In a country well known for its expansive desert and dry heat, solar-powered irrigation systems are achieving the impossible by consistently supplying clean water to six

Sanae Benaadim HAF Office Manager and Volunteer Coordinator. Water is one of the most important resource management aspects that integrates the notion of sustainability in Morocco.The High Atlas Foundation is focused on spreading and strengthening sustainable development in Moroccan communities through several big and small projects.There are nexus cycles between three main elements/keys of life,

Karam-Yane Azzabi, HAF Programs Coordinator High Atlas Foundation’s Karam-Yane Azzabi met with representatives from the Akhiam Association as well as farmers in the Imilchil Circle to discuss afforestation efforts and changes in local agriculture. It was with great enthusiasm that I hit the road to Imilchil from Marrakech. I knew that the road was long,

Errachid Montassir at the United Nations Headquarters in New York during the Climate Action Summit, September 2019. Errachid Montassir, High Atlas Foundation (HAF) Project Manager and Volunteer Coordinator for the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program, won the Water and Energy Award at the Mediathon organized by AMWAJ, CEWAS and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Water and Energy ‘Mediathon’, a capacity-building event,

Program Coordinator The world is currently suffering from a major pandemic, and the most effective way to control its spread is through healthy hygienic practices — regular hand-washing, the use of face masks, and social distancing. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has made October 15 one of the most important days of celebration this year: Global

Project Assistant On August 12th, representatives from the High Atlas Foundation (HAF), the Moroccan Alliance for Climate and Sustainable Development (AMCDD), and the Association of Teachers of Life and Earth Sciences (AESVT) held a meeting in order to finalize their new partnership and also to prepare and plan for the first regional meeting which is

There are a number of reasons that explain the ascendency over decades, and now the mainstream, of participatory approaches to meaningful development. We often see that when people decide upon the project or change that they most want, that they will give their energy and time to help ensure its continuity and success. We widely

Dear Friend, I have often felt that each project is a miracle, literally. When we look back during times of shared evaluation, who could have known or predicted all the roads we would take or the partners that would make each step possible. And, somehow, with the grace of so many people, hundreds of thousands

HAF Intern On February 14th, I went with three members of the High Atlas Foundation to a primary school near the town of El Gara in the Berrechid Province. During this day, two workshops were organized in order to raise awareness about climate change among the young generation. The first activity was aimed at having

Dear Friend, We at the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) wish you a happy end of year and a fulfilling year ahead This Newsletter is an expression of our appreciation for the students from the University of Virginia (UVA) and elsewhere who spent the last two summers with us and will hopefully join us for summers