著者

大島 圭子

出版者

大東文化大学

雑誌

大東アジア学論集 (ISSN:21859760)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2, pp.27-42, 2002-03-31

被引用文献数

1

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Tafilalet is a region which extends in the southeastern part of Morocco. In this area, where the utilization of surface-water is hardly practiced, people who live in oasis have relied their life on khattaras. Khattara is a traditional water-taking tunnel system leading underground water to the surface by gravity. The inhabitants constructed khattaras by themselves, and the amount of work practiced by them during the construction determined the quantity of water they could get. In fact, the amount of work is converted into water. The management of water from the khattara for irrigation is regulated by the customary law of distribution, known as water rights. Each unit of water rights corresponds to 24 hours of irrigation, during which the owner or owners of the water rights make use of the totality of the flow of the khattara. This law also regulates the maintenance of the khattara, therefore the owners of water rights have to participate in the maintenance work in proportion to the amount of water rights, under the control of khattara reader and its representatives who are selected among the water-rights owners. The knattaras belong to the people who have water rights. This characteristic plays an important role in connecting the owners of water rights.