The countries of the Mediterranean rim and more particularly those of the South shore have not been able, in recent decades, characterised by increasingly structural droughts, to satisfy their needs for water and energy. It must be said that the related demands are growing under the combined effect of population growth and the development of certain water and energy-consuming activities, notably the tourism, industry, and agriculture sectors. These increases occur while a significant decrease in water inputs is recorded, which are moreover increasingly irregular, and an energy cost in almost continuous increase under the effect of the surge in oil prices, the source of most of the energy produced thermally in Morocco.

In this context, which is both difficult and complex, all decision-makers and the scientific community consider that good governance and efficient allocation of resources represent the unavoidable outcome to adequately meet the needs of populations and preserve the precious resources that constitute, notably, water and energy, and to ensure the right of access for current and future generations. It is for these multiple reasons and many others that the Association for Water and Energy for All "ASEET" considers that the governance of the water and energy sectors must be the subject of strategic priorities for public authorities in the same way as the education, justice, and spatial planning sectors, which are supposed to constitute an operating system for integrated development on which all other sectoral policies will be grafted.

Furthermore, ASEET considers that the strategies and means used today in terms of water withdrawal for irrigation and drinking water supply present weak points and limits that can only be overcome within the framework of an integrated and concerted national approach where all operators and civil society will be involved, whose role of awareness and mobilisation remains unavoidable in terms of contributing to the balance of power between the different institutions, especially regarding the sustainability of resources and the preservation of the environment in a global manner. Since its creation in 2006, ASEET has not ceased to act at the local, regional, national, but also international levels through its institutional presence in a set of associative bodies and NGOs such as the Euromed Network, Right to Energy SOS-Future. Its main missions, as they have been stipulated in its statute, are focused on the dimension of awareness and information, of the public and especially consumers of water and energy of all kinds, on questions of the state of these resources both in quantitative and qualitative terms, as well as on rational use and the obligation to have behaviours respectful of ethics in the matter with a view to preserving and generalising access and the enjoyment of all Moroccans of this right, which all actors for sustainable development want to make a humanitarian and universal right.

Likewise, ASEET has proceeded to the evaluation of national policies in these two areas by organising public debates, round tables touching on all technical, scientific, legal, practical, and behavioural aspects. Moreover, the territorial approach adopted, in terms of analysis of the state of play, has become a common practice at the level of the Association, to cite only this vision which frames the relationship between local action and the global approach at the national level, which highlights the exchange of experiences and approaches between stakeholders, between regions, and even between development concepts and models.

ASEET wants to be a relay, an external look for others, a mobiliser of the dynamics that exist somewhere here or elsewhere: in two words, it is the sharing of experiences and knowledge that drives it. On the occasion of the celebration of World Water Day, ASEET sets an appointment to debate the problem of water management in Morocco on 23 and 24 March at the Tarik high school in Azrou. "The Water Mermaid of the Atlas" awaits you there.

* Vice-president of the National Association for Water and Energy for All