Residents and city council members in Casablanca were harshly critical of the city administration and utility company's management after recent storms wreaked havoc.
After the devastation of the November floods, residents of Casablanca are demanding officials be held accountable. The city council met on Friday (December 24th) to discuss the failures of city officials and utility companies in handling the disaster which claimed more than 30 lives.
Disappointed and bitter, the councillors of Morocco's economic capital slammed the way in which city affairs are run. In particular, they singled out the sewage network as the reason for the scale of the devastation that brought the city to its knees during last month's floods.
"But normally, one should not have to wait for natural disasters to find out how defective infrastructures are," Councillor Abdelali Lem'Bacher told Magharebia.
Another councillor chimed in by saying that "the city's infrastructures must now be rigorously and professionally reviewed to support the urban development of the city, and officials must pay for their negligence to set an example to all those in charge of public services."
During the tense session, which began at 11am and went past midnight, the questions, comments and responses of the councillors focused on the responsibility of Lydec, the utility company in charge of sewage in Casablanca.
"If Chairman Sajid does not wish to hold Lydec liable, we will be obliged to demand greater transparency," said Councillor Moustapha Lhaya.
This view was shared by the other members of the city council, who called for Lydec's investment programme to be revised in the light of the recent bad weather in order to identify the City Council's priorities.
"The Council must now urgently identify the failings so that the same mistakes can be avoided in future," councillors said.
The disappointment is palpable among city residents, and the extent of the damage is considerable. Naima Essalhi, a trader who lost stock worth around 150,000 dirhams due to the flooding, feels that the City Council is to blame.
"All the stock that I kept in the cellar was swept away by the water, quite simply because the sewers were not clear enough or well enough maintained to allow waste water to flow," Essalhi said. "And in my opinion, Lydec did not do its job."
Responding to the accusations and criticism, Mayor and City Council Chairman Mohamed Sajid, underlined that all city officials must learn lessons from this experience and have the courage to be objectively critical of their own work.
"This will enable us to identify all of the failings and mitigate the damage caused by disasters of this kind," Sajid said.
While no details of the scale of the financial losses suffered by the city were given, the mayor did talk about the programme of investment that has been agreed on with Lydec.
"4.2 billion dirhams (377 million euros) will be invested over the next four years, with 60% of this budget to be set aside for sewerage," the mayor said. Sajid added that the city needs a further 1.5 billion dirhams (135 million euros) to ensure that high-risk areas are suitably prepared.
However, local NGOs say that residents of the city should hold their elected representatives to account.
In a public statement, the management of Lydec said that the city had avoided the worst and that the damage could have been much more severe.
During the recent storms, more than 200mm of rain fell over a period of nine hours. More than 2,500 families had to be accommodated in state-owned institutions such as schools and offices.
After receiving few answers, the city council is set to take up the flood response again on Monday (January 3rd).
© Magharebia.com 2010
