Fewer inspections due to social tensions
(ANSAmed) – RABAT, MARCH 6 – Unauthorised building is not new in Morocco but the Arab Spring, demonstrations, social tensions and elections have caused a decline in inspections, because the authorities are busy keeping public order. This has caused the phenomenon to spread in the second half of 2011. According to data released by the Ministry of Habitat, Urbanism and Urban Planning, more than 40 thousand houses were built illegally in a few months time.
This figure, La Vie Eco writes referring violations discovered during inspections across the country, is probably too low.
Cleanup operations have been carried out in the past weeks in an attempt to curb the worrying phenomenon. Houses have been demolished, causing clashes with the local population, in El Jadida, Safi, Salé, Tangiers and Agadir. In Agadir, the governor of the region decided to launch an unprecedented operation: more than four thousand unauthorised homes have been demolished. According to the Department of Protection, ”these local operations reduce the proportion of unauthorised homes on a national level.” But the problem far from being solved, also because of the heavy resistance in some regions and due to certain economic factors, like the increase in purchasing power in part of the population and the fact that the existing accommodations do not meet general demand. The construction sector is benefiting from this situation. In the past year, the sector recorded a double-figure growth in sales.(ANSAmed).
