A few minutes were enough to cause unprecedented losses in the memory of the city of Safi. Consistent statements from community and political activists, along with testimonies from the city’s residents, agreed that they had never before witnessed human and material damage on the scale of what the “capital of Abda” experienced on Sunday evening, following exceptional rainfall that quickly turned into torrential floods in a number of neighborhoods and main streets.

The heavy rains, which accumulated in large quantities, caused a large number of homes and shops to be flooded with water, and disrupted traffic and movement in several black spots in Safi, leaving a state of anxiety and fear among the people.

Temporary losses

Local authorities in the Safi region reported that, following the heavy thunderstorms that hit the region and led to exceptional flash floods in a short period of time not exceeding one hour, the latest count shows 21 deaths as a result of the torrential floods and their seepage into a number of homes and shops, while others were rescued, some of whom are currently receiving medical care at the Mohammed V Regional Hospital in Safi.

In terms of material losses, the city of Safi, in particular, experienced multiple damages; rainwater flooded about 70 houses and shops in the old city, especially on Bir Anzaran Street and Abu Al-Dahab Square. The floods also swept away about 10 cars, and the road section linking Safi and the center of the Ahraara community on Regional Road 2300 was damaged, leading to the interruption of traffic on several axes within the city.

In a press statement, Aziz Makhlouf, the delegate of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection in Safi, explained that his department provided a special wing as soon as it received the information, and created an emergency intervention cell, while providing the necessary medicines and mobilizing the collective health office to deal with various emergencies.

A number of citizens, through videos and posts on social media, expressed their dissatisfaction with the repetition of this scene with every rainfall, considering that the weakness of the infrastructure and the deterioration of the sewage channels increase the severity of the suffering, and make the city unable to absorb large amounts of rain in a short time.

Given the bad weather conditions, and based on the warning bulletin, the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of National Education in Safi, after consultations with the regional authorities, decided to suspend classes today, Monday, in order to preserve the safety of students and educational and administrative staff.

Field intervention

To address the floods and the resulting localized disruptions in a number of low points in the liquid sanitation network, the regional directorate in Safi, affiliated with the Marrakech-Safi Regional Multi-Service Company, mobilized its technical teams in the field to ensure the drainage of rainwater and to carry out the necessary interventions at the level of liquid sanitation facilities and networks in various areas of the city.

According to information obtained by the online newspaper Hespress, the directorate mobilized material resources including four hydrocuring trucks, two hydrocuring trucks belonging to the contracting company, and three motorized pumps. In terms of personnel, all teams from the company's and the contracting company's liquid waste management departments were mobilized.

The head of the communications department at the regional directorate in Safi added that the mobilized resources also included 19 pickup trucks and light trucks, 3 trucks, in addition to 33 field agents.

According to the same source, the preventive cleaning (pre-cleaning) work was carried out earlier, while the ongoing interventions fall within the field monitoring and follow-up efforts to ensure the smooth drainage of rainwater.

Citizenship arms

In the wake of this tragedy that resulted in deaths, the youth of the old city neighborhoods rolled up their sleeves and engaged in rescue operations and limiting the flow of floods that trapped a number of residents inside their homes, especially in the old neighborhoods with fragile infrastructure, where the water level rose dangerously, prompting civil protection personnel to use marine boats in the rescue operations.

Commenting on what happened, Othman Sihmoud, a local activist, said, “I am very sad about what happened to my beloved city of Safi and to an important part of its population, especially the residents of the old city adjacent to Wadi Shaaba. What happened is not a natural disaster, but a human-caused disaster,” according to what he wrote on his account on one of the social media platforms.

He added that Safi had previously witnessed larger amounts of rainfall, recalling the year 1996, “without recording such a number of deaths or missing persons,” considering that what happened today “was not due to the amount of rain alone, but rather as a result of the provincial decision to close the Sidi Abdel Rahman Dam, which used to be a reservoir for rainwater and contribute to reducing the flow of the Chaaba River,” as he put it.

Sihmoud stressed that the closure of the dam “raises the need to activate the principle of linking responsibility with accountability, by opening an investigation into this disaster and implementing penalties against everyone who is found to be involved in this environmental and humanitarian crime,” also calling for an investigation into the works to prepare the Sidi Abu Al-Dahab square, which were carried out by the regional council, and the extent to which they respected the specifications.