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Rabat – In a meeting held in Rabat, the Interior Ministry launched a pilot project to set up an integrated system to assist with flood risk management on Tuesday, September 24.
The Minister Delegate to the Minister of Interior, Noureddine Boutayeb, introduced the Flood Risk Management Center.
The ministry plans to set up the operational center as part of a pilot project for monitoring, warning, and assistance to flood risk management. The center aims to anticipate and alert the at-risk population of flooding.
The pilot project, financed by the Solidarity Fund against Disastrous Events, will initially be deployed in four areas suffering from flooding.
According to a statement from the Interior Ministry, the target areas include Mohammedia, Ourika valley (Marrakech), the Gharb plain (Kenitra), and a Saharan zone (Guelmim).
The ministry added that each selected area will have a Provincial Coordination Center, located respectively at the Prefecture of Mohammedia and the Provinces of Al Haouz, Kenitra, and Gulemim.
The Integrated Flood Risk Management System is a partnership approach between the various actors involved in flood risk management. The Interior Ministry, the Water Department of the Ministry of Equipment, and the Directorate of National Meteorology (DMN) are all involved in the project.
“This pilot project would help, in the near future, to broaden the said system to all priority vulnerable zones in the national territory,” the ministry’s statement concluded.
Widespread Flooding leads to loss of life
The ministry’s decision to launch flood risk management centers comes in light of the recent devastating floods that have hit several regions across Morocco in recent weeks.
The floods and heavy rains damaged numerous cities and caused significant casualties. Floods hit the province of Taroudant on August 28. Eight people died in Tizert village when the river overflowed onto the pitch during a football match.
In the city of Tata (180 km southeast of Taroudant), heavy rains flooded and destroyed the homes of 200 locals.
On September 8, similar floods caused a bus connecting Casablanca and Rissani, a town in Errachidia Province, to fall off the Oued Damchan bridge. The accident led to the death of 24 people.
