Moorish Village irrigation schemes in Southern Mauritania

Abstract

Black Moorish communities in Southern Mauritania have enthusiastically embraced the recent introduction of irrigation schemes. Coward's organisational model of irrigation systems is used to investigate the management of Moorish schemes, and to compare it with that of the Halpulaar schemes along the River Senegal. In contrast to the Halpulaar case, the management of Moorish schemes is found to be poor. It is argued that this is due to certain social constraints in Moorish society which counteract the efficient management of the schemes. Therefore, more attention needs to be paid to the impact of traditional social patterns on the reception of development projects.