In Morocco, lawyer accused of drying up groundwater

Vines, vegetables, and cereals once grew on this ochre land. Now, the landscape is dominated by the vivid green of avocado trees. From the road that winds through the Gharb plain in northwest Morocco , stretches of fruit trees follow one another, recognizable by their lanceolate foliage, but also by their dense irrigation network and mega-basins—some as large as football pitches.

The soil here is clayey. "It's good for avocados!" smiles the manager of a 100-hectare farm near Tiflet, 60 km from Rabat. The few spring showers brought him moisture, but not enough to avoid irrigation. In this area, the facilities reflect the water needs of this fruit, native to the humid regions of Central America, which is grown in a dry country like Morocco.

Thirty-five wells, five reservoirs, overhead misters, and, on the ground, a sprawling system of black pipes that, row after row, deploy their drip irrigation. "Each plant is watered for two hours a day in winter, four hours in summer, at a rate of twenty liters per hour," says the manager, showing the small buds that will be picked in the fall.

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