THE SHARING OF WATER IN THE OASES OF TIMIMOUN HERITAGE CULTURAL DECLINING

Abstract

The oases of Timimoun are irrigated by ancestral techniques called Foggara. The Foggara system is based on a gallery of slightly sloping conveying the groundwater to the surface. The Foggara is a collective proprety belongs to several owners, the water is subject to a sharing between subscribers, and each receives a share of water in relation to its contribution. The work carried out missions in the years 2007, 2008 and 2010 revealed to the population of Timimoun that the imput of modern water capture (such as pumps and wells) have caused the disappearance of traditional methods of watershed with the including the disappearance of certain occupations such as the Kial el Ma. Currently there is only about 10 Kial el Ma in the Timimoun region.