Authorities extend watermelon cultivation ban due to water bed depletion

The Ministry of the Interior is maintaining its watermelon and melon cultivation restrictions in Morocco’s southeast, due to the sharp decline in the region’s water beds.

Although the decision is temporary, they remain important to the region’s community and environmental activists, who are celebrating the ban renewal.

Advocates for the continued cultivation of red watermelon say that palm trees drain larger amounts of water, but activists are still pushing back against the “thirsty watermelon fruit,” in hope of replacing the regional dependency on the cultivation.