Are the traditional mud buildings that dot the landscape of Morocco's High Atlas, hit on Friday, September 8, by an earthquake that killed 3,000 people and injured more than 5,500, solid enough to withstand earthquakes? In newspapers and on social media, architects, surveyors, seismologists, engineers, geographers, historians and the general public are engaged in a fierce debate. For some, the earth walls are too fragile and are responsible for the thousands of people crushed or suffocated to death. For others, they are an age-old tradition and a heritage to be preserved.
In an attempt to resolve the dispute, the King has officially taken a stand. At the end of a work meeting devoted to disaster relief that he chaired in Rabat on Thursday, Mohammed VI stressed, "the need to conduct the reconstruction process on the basis of specifications (...) in harmony with the region's heritage and with respect for its specific architectural features." In its initial version, the inter-ministerial committee in charge of the emergency program listed some 50,000 totally or partially destroyed houses, suggesting a huge reconstruction effort.
In the provinces of Al-Haouz and Taroudant, which account for 90% of deaths and injuries, one million people are directly affected by the earthquake. "Time is running out, it's urgent to rebuild to spare the population the suffering of winter, which is coming soon and is very cold in the region," warned academic Brahim Al-Guabli, who has taught in the High Atlas. It is not uncommon for temperatures in the mountains to drop below -10°C.
To help survivors, the Moroccan government has promised direct aid of 30,000 dirhams per household (around €2,735) and up to 140,000 dirhams (around €12,765) for each destroyed home. "Reconstruction will cost billions, but Morocco can afford it," said Nabil Benabdellah, housing minister from 2012 to 2017. According to him, the reconstruction project will be funded in part by the rural development fund and the housing solidarity fund, which is fed by a tax on cement and generates around 3 billion dirhams (€27.5 million) a year.
As was done during the Covid-19 crisis, a special account has also been set up to collect donations from individuals and contributions from the public and private sectors. It will be used "to fund expenditure on the emergency rehabilitation program and to support housing reconstruction efforts," said the deputy minister in charge of the budget, Fouzi Lekjaa. The royal Al-Mada holding company, the Central Bank of Morocco and the Office Chérifien des Phosphates have each already contributed 1 billion dirhams.
All these efforts, when combined, will likely be enough. The United States Geological Survey has estimated earthquake-related losses at at least 10 billion dirhams. According to an initial count published in the Moroccan press, the special account had received more than 6 billion dirhams by Saturday. To avoid straining its budget, the government has announced that it will deduct three days from the salaries of civil servants who request it. The King is also counting on "contributions from brotherly and friendly countries that would like to help."
When the Al-Hoceima earthquake in northern Morocco killed over 600 people and left 30,000 homeless in 2004, it took over two years to rehouse all the people made homeless. Today's figure is 10 times higher: close to 300,000 need rehousing, warned UNICEF. What's more, the affected areas are much larger. The mountainous terrain is also much higher than in the Rif region. "In the High Atlas, it's not uncommon to see villages perched at an altitude of over 1,500 meters. How can you operate a cement mixer on a road where only a donkey can pass?" explained a local hotel owner who wished to remain anonymous.
Scattered settlements complicate an already difficult task. There are some 4,000 villages in the provinces of Al-Haouz and Taroudant, and almost 2,000 in the province of Chichaoua and the prefecture of Marrakech, both of which were also hit by the earthquake. To avoid leaving populations scattered, some advocate large-scale rehousing, as was done after the Al-Hoceima earthquake with the construction of large housing estates.
"But this would require freeing up thousands of hectares of land and convincing the residents to leave the villages where they have lived for generations. Even if we succeeded, it would take a very long time," replied historian and anthropologist Mustapha Qadery, a native of Demnate in the High Atlas.
Because it's not just a question of rehousing, according to Mohammed VI, the country needs to "launch a well-thought-out, integrated and ambitious program for the reconstruction and overall upgrading of the affected regions." According to the Higher Planning Commission, Al-Haouz and Taroudant are among the 15 poorest provinces – out of 75 – in Morocco. Agriculture is by far the main source of income, but it is essentially subsistence farming. And while tourism thrives in the region, not everyone benefits from its spin-offs. Per capita GDP in the Marrakech-Safi region is one of the lowest in the country, at just 21,000 dirhams – half the national average.
As Qadery pointed out, "Apart from livestock rearing and a few crops, most of the inhabitants live off the money sent home by relatives working in the big cities, small-scale trade, and sometimes public-sector jobs, but there is no industry capable of employing a large workforce."
In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, Karim Rouissi with the Architecture and Development organization toured the disaster zone of Talat N'Yaaqoub, lamenting the scale of the destruction: schools, post offices, clinics, and even the Tinmal mosque, soon to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. "Instead of trying to bring people down from the mountains, we should bring public services up to them," he suggested. In its report to Mohammed VI in 2021, the special commission on the development model highlighted the region's "isolation" and "lack of transport availability."
The general shock of the first days after the disaster has since given way to a widely accepted truth: the region, however touristic it may be, has not benefited enough from the development efforts initiated at the start of Mohammed VI's reign. It lacks paved roads and facilities, which makes investment difficult and limits economic opportunities.
"Rurality is not a problem in itself, but it is aggravated by the lack of infrastructure," explained Al-Guabli. Young people in the High Atlas are therefore forced to migrate to the cities, joining the ranks of the 150,000 or so rural dwellers who leave the Moroccan countryside every year in search of work. Without a significant commitment from the government, there can be little doubt that this exodus will intensify, further depopulating the mountains and their valleys.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.