An earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale struck Morocco this week, mainly affecting the rural region of Haouz, between Agadir and Marrakech in the High Atlas Mountains. The city of Marrakech was also affected. On the morning of 10 September, the provisional death toll was over 2,000. Most of those killed, wounded and missing are poor peasants. Countless douars (villages) have been destroyed. Rescue teams are taking a long time to reach all the villages and provide urgently needed aid. The lack of infrastructure, especially in the Haouz region, makes this difficult.
European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) expresses its solidarity with the Moroccan people and its hope that the victims will be rescued as soon as possible. However, the earthquake tragedy shows the need for Morocco - and other so-called "emerging" countries - to adopt a different management system, avoiding concentrating all resources and investments in a few favoured regions and adopting an approach that favours rural regions, in order to improve infrastructure, allow the construction of housing with solid foundations and develop local agriculture based on the use and improvement of available resources. Many migrants who flee to Spain, Italy or other European countries originate from Morocco's rural regions.
ECVC calls for the Moroccon regions of Al Haouz, Taroudant, Chichaoua, Ouarzazat, Marrakech, and Azilal to be immediately declared disaster areas.
We also call for an end, in Morocco as elsewhere, to two-speed development and for sufficient resources to be concentrated as soon as possible to ensure the development of rural regions and the well-being of their inhabitants.
Contact information
Federico Pacheco
ECVC Coordinating Committee
+34 690651046
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