Women’s Social Networks at Heart of Coping with Climate Change in Morocco
The Adaptation to Climate Change in the Tensift Watershed Project (GIREPSE) organized a participatory workshop in the riverside village of Setti Fadema for the benefit of women from villages located on the banks of the Ourika River. The workshop discussed several ways to improve the management of water resources and enhance rural women’s capacities to deal with the impacts of climate change using Information and communication technology (ICTs).
The University of Moncton research team from Canada, headed by Professor Diane Pruneau, in coordination with Professor Abdellatif Khattabi, GIREPSE’s project Coordinator and President of the Moroccan Association of Regional Sciences (AMSR), is studying how ICTs can be used to help maintain communication among rural women in the search for solutions to local problems related to water shortages or pollution and to floods risks in the region.
Rural women suffer from shortages of water supply in some areas where access to potable water is limited because houses are not connected to piped water distribution networks. The research team is studying the skills and constraints demonstrated by a number of women who live and work along the Ourika valley. These women are invited to share their experiences in dealing with problems related to shortages of water resources and the suggested solutions to cope with floods and pollution constraints. To facilitate the communication among them, women were offered numerical tablets and internet connection for a period of two years in order to participate in the discussion.
Evgeni Zotov