Morocco to spend $330 million on flood relief plan

Morocco plans to spend 3 billion dirhams ($330 million) to upgrade infrastructure and support flood-hit residents, farmers and businesses in its northwestern plains, the prime minister's office said on Thursday.

Weeks of torrential rain and releases from overflowing dams have inundated villages, farmland and the city of Ksar El Kebir in the northwest of the North African country.

Floods have displaced 188,000 people and submerged 110,000 hectares of farmland, according to official figures.

The government has declared the hardest-hit municipalities as disaster areas, the prime minister's office said in a statement carried by state media.

It said 1.7 billion dirhams of the relief budget would go toward repairing basic infrastructure, including roads and hydro-agricultural networks.

The remainder would fund rehousing, reconstruction of destroyed homes, support to small businesses and assistance to farmers and livestock breeders.

Moroccan authorities, backed by the army, have set up camps for evacuees and deployed helicopters and rescue boats, state television showed.

Access to the largely deserted city of Ksar El Kebir remains banned after the Loukkos River burst its banks earlier this month, inundating several neighbourhoods.

Water Minister Nizar Baraka said on Thursday that the Oued Makhazine dam, which had reached 160% of capacity, was forced to gradually release water downstream after exceptional inflows.

Rainfall this winter was 35% above the average recorded since the 1990s, and three times higher than last year, he said.

Snow cover in the Atlas and Rif mountains reached a record 55,495 square km this winter before shrinking to 23,186 square km, he said, adding that melting water would further replenish dams.

Morocco's national dam-filling rate has risen to nearly 70% from 27% a year earlier, with several large dams being partially emptied to absorb new inflows.

The exceptional rainfall has ended a seven‑year drought that had pushed the country to ramp up investments in desalination.

-Reporting by Ahmed El Jechtimi; editing by Mark Heinrich/Reuters