(Rabat) Reconstruction in Morocco, one year to the day Sunday after the earthquake that struck the High Atlas region near Marrakech, is slow, with only a thousand families having completed the reconstruction of their homes, according to the authorities.
The earthquake of September 8, 2023, measuring 6.8 to 7.0 magnitude, killed nearly 3,000 people and damaged around 60,000 homes, mainly in remote mountainous areas, more than 300 km south of the capital Rabat.
Authorities have issued more than 55,000 reconstruction permits, but only 1,000 homes have been completed, the government said this week, urging survivors to “speed up their work so they can take advantage” of all the financial aid.
These are notably conditioned by obtaining building permits, carrying out technical studies and validation by a project manager of the key stages of construction to ensure its compliance.
PHOTO MOSA’AB ELSHAMY, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
This photo taken on September 4, 2024 shows wreckage that was caused by the 2023 earthquake in the village of Imi N’tala, near Marrakech, Morocco.
At the end of August, residents of the village of Talat N’Yaaqoub, near the epicenter of the earthquake, demonstrated and demanded “the rapid release of aid, alternatives to non-compliant land and medical structures,” stressed one of their representatives, on condition of anonymity.
“A large number of victims are forced to continue living in tents or to leave their villages to rent [un logement] “elsewhere,” said Mohamed Belhassen, coordinator of the survivors of Amizmiz, about sixty kilometers from Marrakech, criticizing a “dismal failure” of the reconstruction operation.
In the Taroudant region (80 km from Agadir), “the situation has not changed much, reconstruction is happening very slowly,” noted Siham Azeroual, founder of “Moroccan Douars”, an NGO providing aid to villages affected by the earthquake.
The survivors “find themselves lost and exhausted in a hellish administrative spiral,” she added.
PHOTO MOSA’AB ELSHAMY, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
On September 4, 2024, people walk past buildings affected by the 2023 earthquake in the town of Amizmiz, outside of Marrakech, Morocco.
While nearly 58,000 survivors received the first of four tranches of public aid, which can amount to up to 140,000 dirhams (around 52,000 Canadian dollars), only 939 families received the last.
At the same time, monthly aid of 2,500 dirhams (around 900 Canadian dollars) has been paid over the past year to more than 63,800 families, according to the authorities.
An aid program of 11 billion euros (nearly 17 billion Canadian) had been released for the reconstruction and socio-economic development of the six provinces affected by the earthquake, over five years.