North African floods kill 18 in Morocco and two in Algeria

Water and electricity supplies affected as areas see as much rain in two days as they would normally expect in a year

A flooded road in Zagora region, south-east Morocco. AFP

At least 18 people have been killed in Morocco and two in Algeria after severe thunderstorms across the region caused major flooding.

Seventeen prefectures and provinces have been affected and searches are under way for four missing people, Morocco’s Interior Ministry spokesman Rachid Khalfi said.

He said the highest death toll had been recorded in the city of Tata, south-east of the coastal city of Agadir and close to the Sahara, where 10 people died.

Two people died in the coastal city of Tiznit, in the west, and three more – including two Canadian and Peruvian citizens – in the eastern city of Errachidia, towards the border with Algeria.

Authorities also retrieved the bodies of two people, including a Spanish national in Tinghir in the centre east and one person in Taroudant in the south west.

Fifty-six homes have collapsed and 93 roads damaged, which led to a disruption in traffic and completely cut off access to some villages. Electricity, drinking water and telecom networks have been affected, Mr Khalfi said on Sunday evening.

“The volume of precipitation that we have witnessed in the past two days is equivalent to the number that these regions usually experience for an entire year,” he said.

According to the Moroccan General Directorate of Meteorology, 47mm of rain has been recorded in the Ouarzazate province, while Tagounite near the Algerian border had almost 170mm.

The heavily damaged city of Tata recorded 250mm of rain, with 203mm in Tinghir, central Morocco, and 114mm in Figuig, on the border with Algeria, local outlets reported.

These storms and floods in Morocco come exactly a year after a devastating 6.8 magnitude quake hit El Haouz district in Marrakesh, in the west of the country, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Earlier this month, the Moroccan government received heavy criticism after stating that it has only been able to replace 1,000 out of the estimated 55,000 lost homes in the region. Survivors continue to live in precarious conditions, many still in tents.

The poor response to the earthquake has led to fears that the victims of Monday's flooding will fail to receive the help they need. Remote areas with already worn out infrastructure bear the brunt of such natural disasters.

Meanwhile, Algeria’s civil defence announced on Sunday that they had retrieved the body of a 10 year old who drowned after a river overflowed in the southern governorate Tamanrasset.

“The situation is catastrophic, we didn't imagine that such a thing could happen overnight and that the entire city would be affected,” Ibrahim Mourad, Algerian Minister of Interior told the state-owned Algerian TV, on a visit to the flood-ravaged city of Bechar.

Authorities have sent 2,200 civil defence officers and the Algerian military “to get the situation under control”, Mr Mourad said.

He added that 120mm of rain had been recorded so far and that damage includes the collapse of bridges, houses and shops, and the complete shutdown of some sections of railway lines.

Authorities also said a 13-year-old boy died in the city of Tendouf, on the southern border with Morocco.

Tunisian authorities have also warned citizens of the risk of flooding in some western governorates.

Videos posted online show heavy rain and rivers overflowing in the Siliana and Beja governorates in the north-west, as well as Sidi Bouzid and the city of Bouficha in the centre of the country.

According to international expert Anis Ben Bayana, such serious repercussions show the importance of preparing for climate change.

“These extreme weather phenomena that are happening are the result of climate change and there is no doubt in that, but it’s humans' incapacity to prepare for it that makes its repercussions quite devastating and fatal,” Mr Ben Bayana told The National.

He said developing and developed countries are going to keep facing such problems unless they prepare for and adapt to extreme and sudden weather conditions

“Infrastructure and the planning of entire cities must change in a way that it could adapt to heavy rains coming at once in a short period of time, and all climate change-linked problems,” Mr Ben Bayana said.

“Violations of forests’ regulations and ongoing cutting down of the trees, which absorb carbon monoxide and prevent landslides, to build houses must also stop.”

All three countries have been suffering from severe droughts for the past six years. Severe thunderstorms frequently cause flooding in the region, but dam levels continue to remain critically low.

On Monday, dams in Morocco were less than 28 per cent full, despite two days of heavy rain. In Tunisia, dams are barely 23 per cent full, said the Ministry of Agriculture on Monday.

Mr Ben Bayana said such low dam levels are normal, in a region that has been suffering from droughts for the past few years.

"Dams cannot start filling up bare lands," he said. "The soil must absorb the water it needs first. Plants would also consume lots of water after such long period of drought, and we must not forget the groundwater tables that have been exhausted."