Aquifer contracts for groundwater resources planning in the MENA region: a means to support stakeholder participation?

Groundwater resources play a key role in the water economy of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. However, groundwater abstraction is estimated to exceed the annual groundwater recharge in 50% of the countries, reaching groundwater stress levels higher than 200% in some cases. This high level of groundwater stress is an indication of unsustainable groundwater consumption in the MENA region, which jeopardizes its socio-economic development. Given the urgent need for the sustainable use of groundwater resources in the MENA region. some countries have attempted to instigate a participatory management of groundwater resources. Morocco, for instance, have been trying to formulate an aquifer management model (‘aquifer contracts’) as a tool to promote stakeholder participation at the aquifer level. The aim of the government through these contracts is to develop a collective dialogue process where all concerned users are involved and engaged in defining sustainable groundwater management policies. However, the implementation of these aquifer contracts is rather a top-down approach and does not reflect the consultative process. This work aims to explore the potential of aquifer contracts as an instrument to support stakeholder participation in groundwater resources planning in the MENA region. The experience of aquifer contracts in Morocco is analyzed from a groundwater governance framework perspective, and compared to other participatory groundwater governance instruments