This is M’hammed who produced this long-term photograph project called ‘Before it’s gone’.
Here you see some of his photographs.
M’hammed now explains about his project, which I am now translating to BSL.
I started this project over five years ago now to better understand the realities of life for the inhabitants of Moroccan oases, and how their way of life is changing because of the dramatic effect of climate change and destructive human activities.
The largest image in the top left shows a man called Mustafa, a guide I was working with at the time.
He peers down into a well.
This is one of the many wells across the desert, and the nomads know them all by heart.
By navigating through the night, they use the stars as their guide to find these wells.
They do the same during the day, navigating with the sun.
They search for these wells to water themselves and their camels.
I think it is a very striking image to express the scarcity of water in these environments.
The image in the centre of the arrangement is an important one to show because many people don’t know much about what an oasis is.
So, this picture shows a large town made up of red buildings, nestled in the foothills of a mountain.
Between lush strips of date palms runs a water course.
For an oasis to be sustainable, it needs to have a balanced ecosystem.
I wanted to show this picture of the palm groves, and the residential neighbourhoods where the inhabitants live.
An oasis survives with just a little bit of water.
There is a mountain with a network of waterways that supports the oasis called qanat.
Under the sun, date palms create a humid microclimate and retain water in soil.
This creates an ecological defence against desertification and a refuge for biodiversity.
The inhabitants of these environments had found an equilibrium between agricultural production and the water available at the oasis.
This is carried out with care.
The land in between the lines of date palms creates a space where other fruits and crops can be grown.
In the top-right picture, the woman in white works in apiculture, which means beekeeping.
She has a zip-on hood with a black mesh for visibility and bee protection.
Beekeeping is quite a longstanding vocation for a lot of women – in quite a patriarchal society, this is one way for these women to have economic independence and freedom to buy the things they want.
By talking to the inhabitants of the oasis, I started witnessing that they had very severe droughts over the last seven years.
In the four images towards the bottom left of the arrangement, you can see the impacts of these droughts: dead date palms against the desert, dried-up waterways, the desiccated corpse of a camel.
From the Ministry of Agriculture’s official statistics, we know that Morocco has lost two thirds of its oases.
Now you have people that are coming from big cities in Morocco to create greenhouses and introduce agriculture that is not adapted to the ecosystem – we’re talking about watermelon, avocados and bananas.
One watermelon needs between 1,000 to 1,500 litres of water, and these fruits or vegetables are not even for local consumption.
They’re all sent to Europe.
It’s as if we’re taking water and we’re exporting it out of the country, to Europe.
We’re still talking about colonialism, imperialism and capitalism, and all these people, their homes and oases are now being affected badly.