Household Capabilities, Perception of Water Vulnerability and Coping Strategies in the Western High Atlas: Case of the Anougal Valley

The purpose of this study was to focus on the role of the households capabilities in terms of the perceptions and adapting strategies for the water vulnerability in the Western High Atlas Mountains. Therefore, a survey was conducted among 246 individuals in the Anougal Valley. In total, six variables summarizing the main indicators of household capabilities, three variables expressing the perceptions of water vulnerability, and two variables formulating household coping strategies, were used to capture this objective. The results showed that people are aware of the weight of droughts, floods and pollution that weaken the resource. To cope with this, households with weak capabilities prefer traditional strategies, others with relatively strong capabilities lean toward modern strategies whose effect seems to be degrading water. So, the improvement of households& #039, capabilities through hydro-agricultural projects that ignores the local hydraulic capital related to water, risks to jeopardize the sustainability conditions of water resources in the western High Atlas.