“People have never seen this”

A rare and deadly phenomenon. According to the latest tally published on Monday evening, September 9, by the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior, eighteen people have died as a result of the torrential rains that fell on Friday and Saturday in several regions of the kingdom. Among the victims are a Spanish citizen, a Canadian and a third Peruvian. The number of victims is particularly high in the province of Tata, south-east of Agadir, where ten deaths were recorded in the flooded villages of Igmir and Aoukerda alone, near Wadi Tamanart.

Located at an altitude of 1,000 metres in the Anti-Atlas, the two villages, trapped in the deep gorges of Smouguen, were swept away by an avalanche of muddy water that caused several buildings to collapse. Rescue operations began on Sunday when the army arrived, but residents are believed to still be under the rubble. At least four people are missing.

As a sign of the extreme violence of the flood, the bodies were dragged by the river for more than 30 kilometres, according to witnesses. “There are 90-year-old people who say they have never seen that before. I myself do not remember ever having witnessed a flood like that.”testifies Ahmed Bouzihay, mayor of the southern municipality of Fam El-Hisn.

The water took everything away

In the other villages there were no casualties, but the oases were partially destroyed. In Anamer, 90 % of the palm trees are on the ground, warns Moussa Oumoussi, member of a local development association. “Some of them were a hundred years old, which testifies to the unusual violence of these rains.” Roads, wells, electricity and drinking water networks were not spared either.

The intensity of the rainfall surprised the population. In just twelve hours, it exceeded 50 millimetres in some places, although there has hardly been any rain here since 2014, says Lahcen Ahouate, president of the NGO Alcesdam, which fights desertification in Tata. “People got used to the drought and ended up building near the wadi, not realising that one day or another they would regain their rights.”

Videos shared by residents show Igmir’s houses and small buildings, some of them new, bordering the wadi just a few metres away. The water swept away everything: trees, roads, electricity poles, walls, cars…

Similar floods left five dead in the semi-desert territory of Drâa-Tafilalet, east of Marrakech, while three people died in the Tiznit region, also predominantly arid. The record rainfall was reached in Zagora, near the Sahara, where more than 200 millimetres fell in two days. “It was spectacular. It was feared that the river [l’oued Drâa] It doesn’t overflow or flood us, but fortunately, that didn’t happen.says a relieved hotelier.

Two opposing air masses

“The recorded rainfall represents about half of the normal annual rainfall in some affected regions. In several areas it even exceeded the usual annual averages, which underlines the exceptional nature of the event.”The General Directorate of Meteorology (DGM) said that around sixty houses collapsed in all the affected areas.

The origin of this climatic event is the convergence of two opposing air masses: one warm and humid from the south, the other cold from the north. Their meeting caused the formation of unstable clouds that caused torrential rains followed by floods in a very short time. “The relief influenced the concentration of this rainfall, with mountains and hills directing the water towards valleys and basins, which increased the water level in the wadis.”specifies Lhoussaine Youabd, spokesperson for the MDE.

Similar episodes have already been observed in Morocco, as in 2014, when devastating floods hit the semi-arid province of Guelmim, in the centre of the country. But then it was a flow coming from the Atlantic. Rarely, this time, what is in doubt is the unusual rise towards the realm of the intertropical front, near the equator. An instability that should diminish in the coming days, with the MDE betting on a gradual return to normality.