Morocco launches first social benefits program
RABAT: Nearly a million low-income Moroccan families are due to receive government aid, authorities announced on Monday, launching the kingdom’s first and much-awaited social benefits program.
OUIRGANE, Morocco: A displaced Moroccan woman carries bags in a temporary camp in the hamlet of Imzilne in the Ouirgane commune, some 60 kilometers south of Marrakesh. – AFP.
Beneficiaries will receive a direct monthly payment starting at 500 dirhams ($50), Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch told a government meeting, according to an official statement. The first payments under the new scheme will be made on Thursday, it said.
Government spokesman Mustapha Baitas said in late October that the aid to families was expected to cost Morocco 25 billion dirhams through 2024. The launch comes a decade after the program was proposed, and as part of an overhaul of social services announced in 2020 by King Mohammed VI. The king’s agenda also introduced in 2021 basic health coverage for all Moroccans. Once reserved only for civil servants and private sector employees, the health care scheme provided coverage for 3.8 self-employed Moroccans and their families, official news agency MAP said, based on data for September.
It also provided free health care to about 10 million low-income Moroccans, paid for by the state. The reforms are rolled out at a time of economic slowdown and deepening inequalities in Morocco, a country of 36 million people. According to the latest estimates by the central bank, Morocco’s economy will end 2023 with a growth rate of 2.7 percent and 6.1 percent inflation. Government aid so far has been indirect, with the state subsidizing some goods but not offering payments to low-income people.
TAFRAOUT, Morocco: Photo shows the skull of an animal of the camelidae group on the dry Oued Tijekht in the Moroccan Sahara desert, near the central city of Tafraout in Morocco. - AFP.
6th consecutive year of drought
Morocco is heading towards its sixth consecutive year of drought as rising temperatures lead to decline in rainfall, the North African country’s water minister said. “We have entered a critical phase after five years in a row of drought, which our country has never experienced before,” Nizar Baraka told a news conference. Drought has been a major concern for Morocco, whose agriculture sector employs about one-third of Moroccans of working ago and accounts for 14 percent of exports, according to authorities.
The last three months “showed that we are heading into another drought year, God forbid,” Baraka said, noting rainfall had dropped 67 percent below the average for that period of the year. Water scarcity is exacerbated by warmer temperatures which increase evaporation in dams. The agriculture ministry forecasts average temperatures rising 1.3 degrees Celsius by 2050. Morocco’s dams are currently filled only to 23.5 percent, down from 31 percent at the same time last year, Baraka said, decrying “a very dangerous situation”.
But he said he was hopeful “because the next three months (are usually) the rainiest in our country”. Local authorities might still need to cut off water supply temporarily, Baraka said. In the face of water scarcity, authorities have been betting on seawater desalination. Morocco plans to build seven desalination stations with a total capacity of 143 million cubic meters annually by the end of 2027. According to official data, there are currently 12 desalination stations in the country with a total capacity of 179.3 million cubic meters annually. The construction of a station in Casablanca, the country’s largest city with 6 million inhabitants, is set to begin next month. — AFP.
