The first regional meeting of the Tensift Basin Living Lab in Morocco took place on 10 November 2025 at the Faculty of Sciences and Technics, Université Cadi Ayyad in Marrakech bringing together local farmers from Mansouri, Agafay, Baala, Ounasda, Yasid, and Lahna. The meeting featured water accounting exercises on the Mansouri farm and discussions on project objectives as well as Participatory System Dynamics Modelling activities: mapping interactions between solutions, assessing innovation readiness levels, and reflecting on the implications of new technologies.
Key stakeholders of the Morocco Living Lab include the Tensift Basin Agency (ABHT), the Haouz plain farmers’ organization, municipalities, regional authorities, and water and electricity agencies.
Advancing the Water–Soil–Energy Nexus for Sustainable Agriculture in the Tensift Basin
The Tensift Basin experiences high water scarcity and frequent droughts leading to lack of sufficient water resources for irrigation and low crop resilience to adverse climatic conditions. The area supports olive groves, orange orchards, and diverse horticulture, irrigated through a mix of drip and traditional flood systems using approximately 85% of available freshwater resources.
NexusLabs aims to boost efficient irrigation, implement demand-driven water distribution, encourage wastewater reuse, explore alternative water sources, and shape supportive policies, while also addressing the water-soil-energy nexus through solar-powered pumping and monitoring of drainage quality. As such, the project focuses on efficient irrigation techniques, demand-driven water distribution schemes, wastewater reuse, and exploring alternative water sources, alongside policy development and review.
By combining local knowledge, institutional engagement, and practical demonstrations, the Tensift Living Lab exemplifies the NexusLabs approach: testing and co-designing Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus solutions that are feasible, locally adapted, and scalable.
The Tensift River Basin is one of nine Mediterranean Nexus Living Labs across six countries, where farmers and local actors work alongside researchers to co-develop and scale integrated solutions that balance productivity, resource efficiency and ecosystem protection.
