Luis Miguel Silva-Novoa Sánchez

• The inability to reverse the degradation of water resources has sparked growing criticism among scholars towards the advocacy of managerial-focused paradigms that neglect the context-specific nature of water governance processes and treat them as politically neutral (Cleaver, 2000; Castro, 2007; Ingram, 2011; Boelens & Vos, 2012; Zwarteveen et al., 2017; Birkenholtz, 2017; Zwarteveen et al., 2021). In recent years, the focus of water scholars has been placed on governance frameworks to try to elucidate whether and how societies can develop governance systems that help achieve resource sustainability while promoting economic development and social equity. This thesis aims to contribute to this debate through insights from empirical and context-specific data of an arid region to answer the following research question: what are the water governance challenges in the Middle Drâa Valley (MDV)? The MDV is located in the province of Zagora in southeaster Morocco. The valley consists of six oases with palm groves (from upstream to downstream: Mezguita, Tinzouline, Ternata, Fezouata, Ktaoua, and M'hamid), which extend over a length of 200 km and an average area of 26,000 ha and have a population of around 240,000 inhabitants (Karmaoui et al., 2014; Lamqadem et al., 2019). The region is characterised by an arid to hyper-arid climate (Klose, 2012) with an average annual precipitation of 70 mm (Moumane et al., 2021). After exploratory fieldwork in different oases of the valley, I focus my research on three areas: the plain of Faija and the oases of Fezouata and M'hamid. To answer the research question, I organised the research based on the following objectives. First, I aim to identify the challenges the water policy of Morocco during 1995–2020 faced in achieving sustainable development and to implement Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). To this end, I address first the question of how water policy documents frame water-related problems, goals, and solutions. Second, how does the national water policy respond to or provoke the water problems identified by local inhabitants and local governmental representatives in the MDV? The research findings, presented in Chapter 2, reveal a significant gap between policy objectives and actual water access, particularly for marginalised groups, hindering inclusive socio-economic development. Two main conclusions can be drawn from these findings. First, policy reforms may be needed to develop a holistic approach to better address the complex links between the social, political, economic, and environmental dimensions of water-related problems. Second, two main factors hamper the development of this holistic approach: the prevalence of a disciplinary approach informing the national water policy of Morocco, which is based on economic and engineering perspectives, and the compartmentalisation between governmental sectors. The dominance of engineering and economic perspectives in policy formulation underscores the need to address power dynamics and break down compartmentalisation between government sectors. Additionally, tensions between environmental sustainability and economic growth pose challenges to policy coherence. A second objective is to use the Social-Ecological System Framework (SESF) of McGinnis & Ostrom (2014) to analyse three groundwater governance cases in the MDV (Faija, Fezouata, and M’hamid) and explain their challenges under the light of their social-ecological particularities. The research findings are presented in Chapter 3. The analysis shows that hierarchical governance in Fezouata struggles with rule compliance due to mismatches between state regulations and local realities, while self-governance in M’hamid and Faija shows promise for rule compliance but lacks effective enforcement mechanisms, compromising long term sustainability. Faija's aquifer contract faces challenges in stakeholder 10 engagement and generating natural incentives for participation, requiring active involvement and legal incentives for cooperation. This evidence leads me to the conclusion that self-governance organisations in the MDV represent an important opportunity to create conditions for more sustainable groundwater use in the region. However, the important limitations these organisations face in imposing sanctions and coordinating with other local self-governance organisations suggest that currently, self-governance organisations are insufficient to ensure groundwater sustainability. To overcome these limitations, self-governance organisations need to cooperate with governmental institutions, but in such a way that their self-governance capacity to create rules and monitor groundwater use is not compromised. Concerning the analytical framework used, the conclusion is that the Social-Ecological Systems Framework (SESF) is a valuable tool for structure analysis aiming to shed light on how water management institutions in place are linked to broader socio-ecological contexts. The third objective is to better understand the implications of tribal conflicts over land for restructuring authority and power relations, which shape access not only to land but also to groundwater in the area. Additionally, the objective aims to explore the implications of these conflicts for achieving sustainable development in the region. To this purpose, I analyse a conflict between Kaaba and Mssoufa tribes in Faija Plain. I identify the drivers of conflict and explain the distributional outcomes the conflict has in terms of water, land, power, and authority. My analysis has been inspired by access theory (Ribot & Peluso, 2020) and an actor-based approach. The results, presented in Chapter 4, reveal that the conflict stems from unequal land access between tribes, rooted in historical power reconfigurations influenced by droughts, market dynamics, national agrarian development policies, and changes in customary land access rules. I argue that preventing further escalation of intertribal land conflicts in the MDV requires directing the actors' motivations and capabilities towards cooperation and resource sharing by implementing a third-party intervention model of conflict resolution in combination with a structural peacebuilding approach. Additionally, we discuss the implications of our findings for promoting sustainable development in the MDV, particularly focusing on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, while also identifying implications for SDGs 1, 10, and 13. Chapter 5 is divided into three subsections. First, I summarise the main findings of each chapter (5.1). Then, I present the general conclusions of the research, along with some recommendations