Following the devastating earthquake that struck Morocco on September 8, a dozen national public and private organizations gathered over a hundred experts to brainstorm and exchange ideas and solutions for the rebuilding project for affected areas.
Public bodies, private institutions and representatives of associations gathered by the OTED citizens’ initiative have just published a guide and recommendations for the taxing rebuilding process.
In a report summarizing the impressive workload the consortium has produced, several criteria were taken into account in drawing up this timely output.
Through a practical and achievable plan, the OTED’s output aims to meet quake affected communities’ urgent needs with respect to both local constraints and the sense of urgency looming over the citizens and government.
The experts were keen to bring new perspectives to bear on the challenges of reconstruction, across a number of sectors, all intertwined in the rebuilding project.
The proposed solutions are accompanied by recommendations on how to implement proposed initiatives, identifying the steps involved, as well as the necessary resources and potential partners.
There was unanimous agreement on the need to adopt a number of key stages in the process, presented as general recommendations.
Such recommendations include generalizing and professionalizing citizen consultation work, and continuing citizen consultations with local populations to identify specific needs and ensure that actions taken are in line with realities on the ground.
The published output highlights the importance of encouraging the creation of reconstruction cooperatives, and to set up communal steering committees responsible for the overall supervision of reconstruction projects, and ensuring compliance with the technical approach and prerequisites.
An increase in professional skills was also among the vital recommendations, and to set up an accelerated training program targeting young people in villages as a priority, to promote the new professional skills needed for sustainable reconstruction, particularly and initially in the fields of ecological construction and resource management.
To implement these solutions efficiently, the guide also recommends encouraging exchanges of expertise between villages by setting up consistent platforms.
To ensure that these solutions are applied more effectively in the field, with effective follow-up, the experts agreed to test them in a number of pilot villages, with the intention of adjusting actions and offering internal benchmarks as the pilot initiatives progress.
Implicated in this guide are the Energy engineering company, the Moroccan Agency for Energy Efficiency, the Public Laboratory for Tests and Studies (LPEE), the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE)- Water branch, the National Agency for Water and Forests, the Office of Vocational Training and Labor Promotion (OFPPT), Cluster energy efficiency of construction materials, Moroccan Association of Assistance and Psychological Support and the Association of Laureates of the Mohammedia School of Engineers (AEIM).
These organizations mobilized experts for an ideation day organized on Wednesday October 4 in Benguerir, as the first stage in this co-construction process, under the theme “EcoDouars, between the wishes of residents, respect for heritage and the demands of nature.”
A full day of workshops and debates enabled participants to think collectively about the reconstruction of earthquake-stricken areas, after Morocco undertook the ambitious reconstruction project shortly after the tragedy hit the nation.