According to the Moroccan legislation, the AWUA has financial resources (membership fees, annual and permanent contributions) to be operational and finance its activities. It benefits from tax benefits in the form of total and permanent exemption from all taxes. It can benefit from state subsidies and special bank treatment in borrowing funds. Once established, the AWUA signs an agreement with the administration concerning the planning of water resources, planning and equipment maintenance of the perimeter of irrigation. In the agreement the area and perimeter’s boundaries of the AWUA are defined, the plan of work, the investment strategy, the financial contribution of users, the maintenance and upkeep of the hydraulic network are well defined.

The main objective of creating AWUA is to develop co-sharing practices among users, ORMVAs and DPAs or the transfer all water management activities to organized farmers, usually illiterate but with irrigation expertise. This new option must be the least damaging the global objective and interest of the ministry of agriculture, and the most profitable to the associations, and therefore to all social categories of farmers themselves. It is also necessary to determine what is the level of AWUA responsibility (head office, network management, association, enterprise, et..) most adapted to their skills, education level and functions or activities. The sharing of responsibilities may be perceived by associations as a poisoned gift and by administrators as a disposal of their usual prerogatives. On the other hand, farmers risk seeing their traditional needs (sustainability of water service, extension, supply of inputs, etc.) not satisfied by the administration, and for others not yet supported by the associations.

So far the associations have been able to play an important role of liaison between water users and the administration. They have little involvement in the management of the network but they have had representation on the Board of Directors of the Hydraulic Basin Agency and even for others and they are members of the High Water and Environment Council. However, all these advances do not give them the power to negotiate water allocation among sectors, the irrigation schedule and water pricing. Up to AWUA these aspects are most important problems that a smart water governance can contribute with. Through the MOU, the AWUA is looking for improving its participation in defending water users’ opinions regarding the tree mentioned issues.