By SADIA KHATRI
Gladiator sets and ancient Berber qasbahs are immediately associated with the Moroccan city of Ouarzazate. But bustling behind its desert winds is a third, equally impressive feat: the pioneering of solar energy. A $9 billion plant launched in 2009 is slowly being assembled to life, while smaller plants on the city’s outskirts have already begun subsiding electricity costs. Yet, an earlier solar project has proved more monumental in some ways, by tackling a local problem: education in villages.
Each morning, in villages dotted around southern Morocco, children skip school to fetch water from nearby wells.