WMOD00318

• Title: A Cooperative Project Between the Kingdom of Morocco and the United States
• Date: 9/1/1989
• Country: United States, Morocco
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

from their assessment of the project's status was that there were "at least nine objectives, some non-
complementary, with a lack of agreement by the participating institutions as to their priorities"
(Changnon et aI., 1985), They recommended that Reclamation, USAID, and GOM collaborate "to
develop a more clearly focused set of prioritized objectives which all agencies can agree upon and
which can be clearly translated into operational and research guidelines and actions." Subsequently,
the following primary objectives were established for Programme Al Ghait:

1. Implement a scientifically based cloud seeding demonstration program for winter
precipitation augmentation over the upper portion of the Oued Oum Er Rbia basin in the
Atlas Mountains to help alleviate the current drought conditions, assess the amount of
additional water produced in the river/reservoir system as a result of the demonstration
program, and evaluate the effects of increased winter precipitation on runoff and its
subsequent uses.

2. Examine cloud and preCIpItation processes to improve the scientific basis of the
demonstration program and obtain evidence of its physical plausibility.

3. Concurrent with the first two objectives, transfer winter precipitation augmentation
technology through informal and formal training to enable Moroccan personnel to design,
plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate similar winter precipitation augmentation projects
over the mountainous areas of Morocco.

4. Increase awareness of the need for an improved water resources management program
in the Oued Oum Er Rbia basin and of the contribution that weather modification can make
to the water resources.

The work described in the remainder of this report was intended to fulfill the objectives just stated.

1.5 Program Management

Responsibility for the program management rested jointly between the USG and the GOM. To
provide an effective management team, a Project Steering Committee (PSC) was established to
manage the day-to-day issues within the project. Issues beyond the immediate conduct of the
project were managed through the National Steering Committee (NSC), which interfaced with other
ministries and agencies within Morocco.

1.5.1 Project Steering Committee. - As of 1987, the PSC was comprised of Mr. Amed Bensari,
Director of DMN; Colonel Mohamed Bamaarouf, the coordinator for FRA; Mr. Sa ad Benarafa.
Project Director; Mr. EI Bachir Loukah, Deputy Project Director; Mr. Brahim Louaked, Equipment
Coordinator; Mr. Harry Petrequin, Deputy Mission Director; the USAID Mission Project Officer;
and Dr. David Matthews, RSA. When the USAID Environmental Coordinator for Asia/Near East
[Dr. Stephen Lintner (1984-87); Mr. Glen Whaley (1988)] and Dr. Bernard Silverman of
Reclamation were in Morocco for the annual monitoring reviews, they served as er officio members
of the PSC.

The PSC was authorized to approve required changes in the project design, to discuss problems,
and to identify solutions to problems in project management, implementation, monitoring, and
evaluation.

3