Morocco Allocates Significant Budget for Rehabilitation of Flood-affected Areas

The Moroccan government announced today, Thursday, the launch of a program to rehabilitate areas affected by floods in the southeast of the kingdom, with a budget of 2.5 billion dirhams (250 million dollars).

This initiative demonstrates Morocco’s efforts to assist those affected by natural disasters and recalls the significant compensations allocated by the kingdom for restoration and reconstruction work in areas hit by the High Atlas earthquake last year.

In a statement, the government said, “In implementation of royal directives, the government has launched a program to rehabilitate the areas affected by floods in the southeast of the kingdom due to heavy and exceptional rainfall, which has caused human and material damage.”

The program also aims to “support agricultural activities in the affected areas, particularly through the reclamation of small and medium irrigation circles, and to provide assistance to those who lost their livestock due to the floods, in order to rebuild the livestock wealth in these areas,” according to the same source.

This step follows the increase in the number of victims from a passenger bus that was swept away by floods in Tata (southeast) on Friday, bringing the toll to 10 dead and 7 missing.
Moroccan authorities had announced on September 9 that the number of victims from floods and mudslides that hit the provinces of the southeast had risen to 18 dead and 4 missing, in addition to the collapse of 56 houses.

The most affected regions include Errachidia, Midelt, Ouarzazate, Tinghir, Zagora, Figuig, Jerada, and Tata (southeast), as well as Taroudant, Tiznit, Guelmim (central), and Assa-Zag (south).

The government confirmed that “support will be provided for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of damaged buildings and housing, and the rehabilitation of infrastructure for roads, communication networks, electricity, and drinking water.”

Reconstruction and rehabilitation works in the areas affected by the High Atlas earthquake have made significant progress, while the construction of thousands of houses has been completed.

The kingdom has managed to meet the challenge of erasing the effects of this natural disaster, especially since the number of people affected by the earthquake reached 2.8 million, while the number of affected villages reached 2,930, representing a third of the villages in the region.
The disaster caused the collapse of 59,675 homes, of which 32% were completely destroyed, while the other homes were partially damaged.

57,805 families received an initial payment of 20,000 dirhams for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of their homes, totaling an estimated amount of 1.2 billion dirhams (120 million dollars), according to the Moroccan government.