A week after the terrible earthquake which left nearly 3,000 dead, Morocco must rebuild itself. Some 300,000 victims are awaiting rehousing, according to Unicef.
The question of rehousing now arises in Morocco, a week after the terrible earthquake which left 2,946 dead and 5,674 injured, according to the latest official report. Unicef counts 300,000 homeless Moroccans, including 100,000 children. A major reconstruction project is being prepared in the country, particularly in Marrakech and in the Al Haouz region, the epicenter of the earthquake.
One figure allows us to measure the extent of the damage: 50,000 buildings were completely or partially destroyed by this powerful earthquake according to the royal cabinet. Some can barely stand. Among these buildings, 500 schools need to be rebuilt.
Securing damaged buildings
In these damaged neighborhoods, children’s games mingle with the rumbles of excavators. Dark circles like saucers under his eyes, Taoufik rested for a few minutes on one of the tracks of his machine. The week of this worker from the north of the country was particularly trying: “I’m very tired. For five days, I helped dig up corpses, sometimes children. It’s so painful. I also made sure that families could return to their homes to collect papers or precious possessions. I feel both great distress and great pride.”
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At the end of the week, his new mission was to demolish disfigured, uprooted and potentially dangerous houses. Some residents living in camps continue to make brief trips there to collect belongings. “It’s on a case by case basis… Houses which are very damaged and therefore completely uninhabitable, we must destroy them as quickly as possible to stop these dangerous back and forths, explains Taoufik. The others which are damaged but still holding will be rehabilitated, according to the latest instructions from the authorities.”
According to the royal cabinet, 140,000 dirhams (around 12,800 euros) will be allocated to “completely collapsed housing” and 80,000 dirhams (around 7,300 euros) will be dedicated to the rehabilitation of partially damaged homes.
Mourning in the tents
For some, the consequences of the earthquake represent a double violence. On the one hand there is the infinite pain of having lost their loved ones, on the other the pain of having nothing left, no house and no resources. It is a life of great precariousness that looms for them in the coming weeks, even months, on the street or in a tent in the cold and promiscuity.
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The tent where Lahcen lives with her grandmother, lying pensive on a mat, is made of white oilcloth. It is a gift from the Kingdom of Kuwait. It is placed on the side of the road, a few meters from their house built in the traditional way, using a mixture of stone and earth, which will soon be demolished. The grandmother was born there, her daughter and granddaughter died there in the rubble: “Rebuilding with new or old materials doesn’t matter to me, what concerns me is the future of my two orphaned granddaughters.”
“If the State does not guarantee us construction that meets anti-seismic standards, we will not leave our tent.”
Lahcen, earthquake survivorat franceinfo
Although the question of buildings is not Lahcen’s primary concern either, he does not want to relive such an episode: “I prefer that we rebuild but not with terracotta, with modern materials, with anti-seismic standards. If the State does not guarantee this to us, we will not leave our tent.” The Moroccan state will grant emergency aid of around 2,750 euros to households affected by the disaster.
Mixing “tradition” and “security”
A lot of thinking is being done in particular by architects: 300 volunteers have volunteered in the country. They are urban planners, engineers, sociologists, members of civil society. They form joint committees and have had daily meetings for a week. The challenge for them is to find a balance between traditions, topography of the land and security, explains Jawad El Oussri, president of the regional council of the order of architects of Marrakech-Safi: “These villages were built with local materials, it is an extraordinary heritage. The future urban planning and architectural model of these villages must be debated. We must still find this vernacular aspect, this adaptation to nature.“
“There is no question of concreting the mountain. We have earth construction models which are seismic.”
Jawad El Oussriat franceinfo
The architect also warns that there will be areas where building will be prohibited and villages displaced. After the earthquake in Agadir in 1960, which left 12,000 dead, the razed city was rebuilt further south.