King Mohammed calls to fight unhealthy housing
Morocco, Politics, 8/21/2001

Morocco's King Mohammed VI has called Monday to fight unhealthy housing and to ponder, thoroughly and daringly, on means of struggling against what he called "one of the most shocking symptoms of social deficit," which spares no part of the Kingdom.

In a speech he delivered on Monday evening on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People and on the occasion of Youth Day, marking this year the sovereign's 38 birthday, King Mohammed VI renewed will to raise the goal of economic and social development to the rank of "Supreme Jihad," and to grant utmost importance to human development.

He also pledged to grant utmost priority to low-cost housing in national policies, as well as in the programs of the Hassan II Fund for economic and social development, with the aim to encourage initiatives by the private sector and by the civil society in this realm.

Deploring the failure by the bodies entrusted with fighting unhealthy housing to fulfil their mission, the sovereign recalled that the unhealthy housing phenomenon exacerbated as there are currently "some 770,000 families, i.e. more than four million persons," living in shantytowns and in lodgings that do not meet legal requirements and "unhealthy housing is still growing at the rate of 40,000 lodgings per year, i.e. 40 percent of the lodgings constructed every year nationwide."

King Mohammed VI warned that "this evolution might have the most pernicious impact on the balance of our social fabric and the healthiness of our environment." "It might also hamper development efforts made by public authorities and by the Hassan II fund for economic and social development to drain to our cities and villages productive investments, mainly in the realm of tourism," he insisted

He called for a strict implementation of the law by all concerned authorities and for putting an end to the laxity of some local communities and authorities, which do not fully shoulder their responsibilities in the field and overlook, in drawing plans and schemes, to grant to low-cost housing the importance it deserves. The sovereign then urged the government to start the drafting of a legal, regulatory frame for a well-defined draft national program, meant to eradicate the unhealthy housing that exists at present.

"This draft should provide for the necessary sanctions and repressive measures to prevent the persistence and proliferation of unhealthy housing and define, precisely, the responsibilities befalling each actor in this realm, mainly local communities, urban agencies, urbanism inspections and regional, provincial, prefectural and local authority agents, as well as individuals, the housing department and its affiliated institutions and all the bodies responsible for delivering licenses and authorizations, checking the conformity of lodgings, struggling against unhealthy housing and promoting the real estate sector," the King said, adding "this draft should enunciate, with all the required rigor and transparency, the civil, penal and financial sanctions to punish illegal practices or failure to fulfill duties in this field."

King Mohammed VI also called for seeking new financing sources to fund low-cost housing programs and to promote partnership formulas, as part of local housing and urban development plans designed in coordination with all competent bodies to erase unhealthy housing from the country's landscape.

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