The rescue teams have already left, but the remains of the houses are still piled up on the sides of the steep roads of the High Atlas.
One year after Almost 3,000 people died due to an unprecedented earthquake that shook communities of the Moroccan High Atlasit still looks like a bomb went off in towns like Imi N’tala, where dozens of residents died when a chunk of the mountainside fell away and leveled most of the buildings.
Broken bricks, bent rebar, and chunks of kitchen floor remain, but they have been stacked in neater piles next to the plastic tents where the displaced now live. Some are waiting for funds to rebuild their homes. Others are waiting for approval of their plans.
The most affected region is agricultural villages
The region shaken by the earthquake is full of impoverished farming villages like Imi N’talawhich can only be accessed through roads full of potholes and in poor condition. Associated Press reporters revisited a half-dozen of them last week ahead of the one-year anniversary.
In some places, residents, waiting for government permission, They have started to rebuild their houses independently. Elsewhere, people, tired of the discomfort of plastic tents, have returned to their cracked homes or moved to larger citiesabandoning his old life. In cities such as Amizmiz and Moulay Brahim, streets have been cleared, although cracked buildings and piles of rubble remain, as in the days after the earthquake.
The pace of normal life has resumed in some of the province’s largest cities, where roads, homes, schools and businesses are being rebuilt, and some residents have received housing in metal containers. But most of those displaced from the 55,000 houses destroyed by the earthquake They are still exposed to the heat of summer and the cold of winter, vliving in plastic storesimpatient to return.
Mohamed Soumer, a 69-year-old retiree who lost his son in last year’s earthquake, is angry because The local authorities have prohibited him from rebuilding his house on the same steep hillside for safety reasons. He now spends his days with his wife in a plastic tent near his house, now destroyed, and he fears moving to another place and restarting his life in a larger and more expensive area.
“Residents want to stay here because they have land where they grow vegetables to earn a living,” he said. “If they go somewhere else and abandon this place, they won’t be able to live there.”
The Moroccan Government promised aid
The Government said it would provide households monthly post-earthquake stipends and additional funds for seismically safe reconstruction. But disbursement has been uneven, residents say, and many are still waiting for funds or for the reconstruction to begin.
Anger against local authorities has grown in cities like Amizmiz and towns like Talat N’Yaqoub, where residents have protested their living conditions. They have criticized the slowness of reconstruction and demanded more investment in social services and infrastructurewhich have been neglected for a long time in contrast to the urban center and coastline of Morocco.
The authorities have stated that The reconstruction will cost 10.8 billion euros and will last about five years. The Government has rebuilt some sections of rural roads, health centers and schools, but last week the commission in charge of reconstruction recognized the need to accelerate the reconstruction of some homes.
