The inhabitants of the Imilchil commune are angry. Since last Sunday, they have not stopped multiplying protests and marches to contest the takeover by the National Office of Electricity and Potable Water (ONEEP) of the commune's water resources, which are considered the property of the Ait Haddou tribe. They are even threatening a march on Rabat next Sunday to protest in front of the headquarters of the Prime Minister's office.

For them, there is no question of charging for the supply of drinking water, especially since the population of this locality lives in poverty and exclusion. "The drinking water resources of Imilchil depend largely on a well and a water spring that are the property of our tribe and which we have exploited for ages. That is why we find it unacceptable that the population pays for what it considers its right," an inhabitant of the commune told us.

According to him, the problems started when the municipal council entrusted the management of the spring and the well dug by the Ministry of Agriculture in the 80s to supply water to agricultural land to ONEEP. "The said council deliberated without consulting the population or taking into account the standard of living of the inhabitants abandoned to their fate by the administration and the State," our source confided to us.

Indeed, the locality of Imilchil is located at an average altitude of 2,300 metres, in the northern part of the High Atlas. An isolated and landlocked area that brings together about fifty villages and houses built of adobe and a population that lives in extreme poverty and a high illiteracy rate (the per capita income does not exceed 2000 DH/year). But it is not only the municipal council that is at fault. The angry inhabitants also fired shots at ONEEP, accused of excluding more than 30 individuals from connection to the drinking water and electricity networks. "The expansion of the network was riddled with failures and few are those who benefited from it," our source indicated to us.

So what do the protesting inhabitants propose? The cancellation of the municipal council's decision regarding the management of water and electricity as well as free ONEEP services. Recommendations that do not seem to have been taken into account by the council despite the negotiations led by local authorities, which are currently at a standstill.

On the ONEEP side, the regional directorate for the centre-south confirmed to us that the management of water in this locality was decided following a deliberation of the municipal council and after the signing of an agreement. "We have no problem with the population of this commune. Our interlocutor is the municipal council and not the inhabitants. For us, it is clear that any work carried out entails financial costs to be paid," a manager of this directorate told us.