Diesel water pumps

Ksar Ouled Saidane, Tafilalt Oasis

In the Tafilalt oasis of southeastern Morocco, many prosperous farmers have bought diesel pumps and built wells to tap the shallow water table just below the surface. You see such a farm family here. They have dug a well to the water table (about 45 feet down) and put a shaft down it by which they pump water out by diesel pump, or what is commonly called the "motopompe" in Morocco.

As more farmers decide to exploit the subsurface water table by motopompe, the water table is declining--getting lower. Farmers have to re-dig their wells and sink their shafts ever-deeper.