(Ouarzazate) Torrential rains and floods have left at least 11 dead and 9 missing since Friday in southern Morocco, an “exceptional” climatic phenomenon which has also affected neighbouring Algeria, where two people swept away by the floods were being sought on Sunday evening.
Heavy downpours and floods left 11 dead, including 7 in the province of Tata, 740 km southeast of Rabat, 2 in Tiznit (southwest) and 2 in Errachidia (southeast), including one of unspecified foreign nationality, said the spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior, Rachi El Khalfi, according to a provisional report.
In addition, 9 people are missing in the areas of Tata, Errachidia and Taroudant (south-west).
Heavy rains accompanied by floods and inundations have hit 17 regions and provinces of Morocco since Friday, some of which are usually semi-arid.
“The volume of precipitation recorded in two days is equivalent to that which these regions normally experience during an entire year,” said the ministry spokesman.
PHOTO SMAIL AIT HMAD, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
In the last 24 hours, the region of Ouarzazate, 500 kilometers south of Rabat, received 47 mm of water in three hours, and up to 170 mm in Tagounite, near Zagora, not far from the Algerian border, according to Moroccan weather services.
He also announced the collapse of 40 houses nationwide and damage to 93 roads as well as to water, electricity and telecommunications networks. In Algeria, a similarly violent rain front hit desert areas such as the Sahara, according to images posted on social media.
According to the Algerian Civil Protection, two people swept away by the waters are being sought in Tamanrasset, about 2,000 km south of Algiers, and in El Bayadh, 600 km southwest of Algiers. Initially, the Civil Protection had announced the missing person in Tamanrasset as well as a death in Illizi, 700 km southeast of Algiers.
The state agency also carried out several rescues of families trapped by flooded rivers, in Illizi and Béchar (south-west) in particular.
“Intertropical Front”
Since Friday, the south and south-east of Morocco as well as certain areas of the Atlas have been affected “by an extremely unstable tropical air mass, due to the exceptional position of the Intertropical Front (ITF) over the south of the country”, the spokesperson for the General Directorate of Meteorology in Morocco, Lhoussaine Youabd, explained to AFP.
“Moist tropical air masses moved northward, meeting cold air masses, leading to the formation of unstable and violent clouds,” he said.
These unusual conditions for these regions caused “heavy thunderstorms and significant rainfall, leading to river flooding” and flooding, the official continued.
In the last 24 hours, the region of Ouarzazate, 500 kilometers south of Rabat, received 47 mm of water in three hours, and up to 170 mm in Tagounite, near Zagora, not far from the Algerian border, according to Moroccan weather services.
“We haven’t seen such rains for about ten years,” Ouarzazate resident Omar Gana told AFP.
Morocco is experiencing severe water stress after six consecutive years of drought, which had reduced dam levels to less than 28% at the end of August.
The rains were accompanied by strong winds, reaching 100 km/h in Ouarzazate or 76 km/h in Marrakech, where they caused “an optical phenomenon, giving the sky an orange tint.”