His Majesty King Mohammed VI has launched the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra Essential Reserves Platform, which will provide disaster and emergency response capacity in the Kingdom of Morocco.
By order of His Majesty the King, each region of the Kingdom will be provided with a large platform of essential reserves, including tents, blankets, beds, medicines, foodstuffs, and other crucial items, to respond immediately to disasters such as floods, earthquakes, chemical, industrial, or radiological hazards.
The Rabat-Salé-Kénitra region’s essential reserves platform will be built on a 20-hectare site within 12 months, with a total estimated budget of MAD 287.5 million (USD 31.2 million). The project will include the construction of four warehouses of 5,000 square meters each, two shelters for oversized equipment of 2,500 square meters each, a helipad, and parking lots.
This regional platform is part of a comprehensive program, presented to His Majesty the King on this occasion, which plans for the construction of twelve platforms at a total cost of around MAD 7 billion (USD 760.3 million), including MAD 2 billion (USD 217.4 million) for construction and MAD 5 billion (USD 542.9 million) for the purchase of products and equipment.
Mobilizing an estimated total land area of 240 hectares, these platforms will house 36 warehouses, distributed according to each region’s population density and its respective risks. For the six regions of Casablanca-Settat, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, Marrakech-Safi, Fez-Meknes, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, and Souss-Massa, the platforms will comprise four warehouses, each with a total surface area of 20,000 square meters. Platforms in the other six regions—Eastern Region, Beni Mellal-Khénifra, Draâ-Tafilalet, Guelmim-Oued Noun, Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra, and Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab—will include two warehouses, each with a total surface area of 10,000 square meters.
The products and equipment to be stored in these areas aim to ensure, in the event of a disaster, a swift response to aid affected populations, as well as prompt and reasonable coverage of needs in terms of rescue, aid, and care, in line with His Majesty the King’s proactive vision.
On this basis, these products and equipment, intended for immediate deployment following the possible occurrence of a natural disaster, cover the following main categories:
Shelter: Provision of 200,000 multi-purpose tents and associated equipment, namely cots, mattresses, and blankets, among others.
Catering: Mobile bakeries and kitchens, as well as food kits to meet the needs of affected families.
Utilities: Drinking water and electricity needs of disaster victims will be met by providing water purification and potabilization equipment, as well as electrical power generation using towable generators.
Rescue and Response: Developing rescue and response capacities, mainly involving building up stocks of flood control equipment, as well as equipment for rescue in case of earthquakes, landslides, and mudslides, in addition to equipment to combat chemical, industrial, and radiological hazards.
Healthcare: Provision of six field hospitals, each with 50 beds, as part of a first phase, and six more in a second phase, including emergency operating modules and medical service modules for various specialties. This mobile hospital infrastructure will be enhanced by advanced medical posts for triage and first aid at disaster sites. This will also include provisioning medical supply reserves to meet the immediate needs of disaster victims.
The storage of food products and medicines will be managed by specialized teams and subject to strict rules in line with relevant standards.
The implementation of these platforms will help develop national emergency infrastructure, improve the overall crisis response system, ensure greater speed in delivering relief and aid to disaster victims, and strengthen Morocco’s resilience against different types of crises.
The comprehensive program to set up regional platforms of essential reserves will also provide strategic reserves to meet needs following disasters, such as the Al Haouz earthquake, threefold. It will also establish a national ecosystem for the production of equipment and materials required for the immediate deployment of disaster relief operations.
These regional platforms, whose sites have been selected according to safety criteria, have been designed based on an in-depth analysis of each Moroccan region’s needs in terms of the risks involved, backed by a study of best practices and international standards.
This initiative is crucial in bolstering the country’s disaster management capabilities, especially against the backdrop of the September 2023 earthquake of 7.2 magnitude, which was, by and large, very well managed, to the admiration of the world.…
