RABAT: Morocco plans to spend 3 billion dirhams ($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.
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.
Floods have displaced 188,000 people and submerged 110,000 hectares of farmland, according to official figures.
The government has declared the hardest-hit municipalities disaster areas, the prime minister’s office said in a statement carried by state media.
It said 1.7 billion dirhams of the relief budget would be allocated to repairing basic infrastructure, including roads and hydro-agricultural networks.
The remainder would fund rehousing, reconstruction of destroyed homes, support to small businesses, and assistance to farmers and livestock breeders.
Moroccan authorities, backed by the army, have set up camps for evacuees and deployed helicopters and rescue boats, state television reported.
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.
Water Minister Nizar Baraka said on Thursday that the Oued Makhazine dam, which had reached 160 percent of capacity, was forced to gradually release water downstream due to exceptional inflows. Rainfall this winter was 35 percent above the average recorded since the 1990s, and three times higher than last year, he said.
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.
Morocco’s national dam-filling rate has risen to nearly 70 percent from 27 percent a year earlier, with several large dams being partially emptied to absorb new inflows.
The exceptional rainfall has ended a seven-year drought that had prompted the country to ramp up investments in desalination.
Morocco to spend $330 million on flood relief plan
https://arab.news/5exkx
Morocco to spend $330 million on flood relief plan
Turkiye seals preliminary deals for largest foreign-funded railway project
- The funding will support the 125 km (78 mile) long Northern Ring Railway Project, which will carry passengers and freight from Gebze to Halkali via the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge connecting Istanbul’s two main airports
ISTANBUL: Turkiye has reached preliminary agreements with six international lenders to secure $6.75 billion for a new railway line across the Bosphorus in what would be Turkiye’s largest foreign-financed railway project, Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said on Tuesday.
Once completed, the line that will pass through north Istanbul is expected to carry 33 million passengers and 30 million tons of freight annually, he said, adding that it will open “a new era in logistics” by boosting the country’s rail capacity between Asia and Europe.
The funding will support the 125 km (78 mile) long Northern Ring Railway Project, which will carry passengers and freight from Gebze to Halkali via the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge connecting Istanbul’s two main airports.
Preliminary deals were reached with the World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, OPEC Fund for International Development and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the minister said.
“We aim to complete the tender process and hand over the site this year so that (construction) work can start,” Uraloglu said.
An uninterrupted rail freight across the Bosphorus Strait is currently possible through the Marmaray railway tunnel and only during limited hours daily. According to the ministry’s website, a total of just 1.7 million tons of cargo were transported through Marmaray between 2020 and October 2025.
