Casablanca — The heavy rains experienced across Morocco this past week have revealed faulty infrastructure in various cities.
In its November 28 edition, Moroccan daily Assabah detailed several fraudulent infrastructure projects as revealed by the heavy rains this past week. The projects, which had reportedly required billion-dirham investments, could not stand the test of heavy rain, as seen by the floods in cities like Casablanca, Rabat and Agadir.
Recent road repair projects, in particular, were revealed to be especially faulty, as puddles and puddles of rain appeared last week. Assabah details Casablanca’s roads in particular: the poor infrastructures of Boulevard Zerktouni, Rouhani and Abdelmoumen made it hard for citizens to travel.
In Tangier, the damage caused by mother nature was particularly bad. Flooding forced drivers to reroute, causing congestion in the city’s main highways. The local population, in response, called out Amendis, the city’s water and electricity operator for poor infrastructure management.
And it’s not just the roads. Omar Kaokab, a traveler passing through Casa Port, noticed rain seeping through the train station roof and shared the following video on social media:
Casa Port was only opened a year and a half ago.
It must be noted that regionally, Morocco’s infrastructure is comparably one of the best. In the World Economic Forum’s “Global Competitiveness 2015” report, Morocco’s railroad infrastructure was ranked 1st in North Africa, 3rd in Africa and 6th in the Arab World. Globally, however, the country was ranked 55th.
Though the country has progressed in terms of infrastructure, it still has a long way to go, and perhaps authorities should take a closer look at how infrastructure projects are carried out.
