Morocco plans to spend $330 million to upgrade infrastructure and support flood-hit residents, farmers and businesses in its northwestern plains, the prime minister’s office said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Weeks of torrential rain and releases from overflowing dams have inundated villages, farmland and the city of Ksar El Kebir in the northwest of the North African country.<\/p>\n
Floods have displaced 188 000 people and submerged 110 000 hectares of farmland, according to official figures.<\/p>\n
The government has declared the hardest-hit municipalities as disaster areas, the prime minister’s office said in a statement carried by state media.<\/p>\n
It said $209 million of the relief budget would go toward repairing basic infrastructure, including roads and hydro-agricultural networks.<\/p>\n
The remainder would fund rehousing, reconstruction of destroyed homes, support to small businesses and assistance to farmers and livestock breeders.<\/p>\n
Moroccan authorities, backed by the army, have set up camps for evacuees and deployed helicopters and rescue boats, state television showed.<\/p>\n
Access to the largely deserted city of Ksar El Kebir remains banned after the Loukkos River burst its banks earlier this month, inundating several neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n
Water Minister Nizar Baraka said on Thursday that the Oued Makhazine dam, which had reached 160% of capacity, was forced to gradually release water downstream after exceptional inflows.<\/p>\n
Rainfall this winter was 35% above the average recorded since the 1990s, and three times higher than last year, he said.<\/p>\n
Snow cover in the Atlas and Rif mountains reached a record 55,495 square km this winter before shrinking to 23 186 square km, he said, adding that melting water would further replenish dams.<\/p>\n
Morocco’s national dam-filling rate has risen to nearly 70% from 27% a year earlier, with several large dams being partially emptied to absorb new inflows.<\/p>\n
The exceptional rainfall has ended a seven\u2011year drought that had pushed the country to ramp up investments in desalination.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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