One year on, Atlas earthquake still highlights Morocco’s divide

Alice Morrison

• Impact severe around epicentre
• But overall GDP largely unaffected
• Tourism still booming

Last Sunday marked one year since a devastating earthquake hit Morocco, flattening entire villages in the Atlas Mountains and killing around three thousand people.

Within a week of the disaster, the country’s deadliest earthquake in 63 years, King Mohammed VI pledged MAD120 billion ($11.6 billion) over five years for reconstruction of the area. 

That included a grant of MAD140,000 in reconstruction aid to each household whose home had collapsed, and MAD80,000 for a damaged home. 

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Every household affected was also given a stipend of MAD2,500 a month. For context, an agricultural minimum wage is MAD84 a day. This allowance is due to end at the end of this month. 

While the human impact is still being felt in the area, a reconstruction plan has made progress. The hit to Morocco’s GDP has been slight and tourism has remained strong.

But the tragedy has exposed the divide between the wealthy urban areas and poor rural areas of the kingdom.

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A year on, the reconstruction picture is patchy. Roads were quickly cleared and some have been fully rebuilt, while others are still under construction. Repairs to schools are taking longer, with many students still dispersed to different areas or working in portacabins. 

Rachid Imerhane, a member of the local council in Asni, in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, tells AGBI that “the reconstruction is going well.” 

Imerhane estimates that around 70 percent of affected homeowners have started rebuilding, and the remainder have finished building the foundations of their houses.

However, Imerhane acknowledges that not every area is moving at the same speed. “Other communes in Ijoukak, they are still so slow,” he says. “The money is there and the plans are there. In a few places the government says it is not possible to build because it is not safe.”

It is calculated that the earthquake will have a 0.24 percent impact on Moroccan GDP growth this year, which equates to around MAD3 billion.

There was little damage in the industrial heartlands of the north of the country, with the brunt of the impact felt in areas further south. A 1.3 percent drop in GDP is forecast in the Marrakech-Safi area, while the Al Haouz area, at the earthquake’s epicentre, will see a drop of around 10 percent in economic activity.

Alice Morrison

Geoff D. Porter, president of North Africa Risk Consulting (Narco), a political and security risk and business intelligence company, says he was sceptical about what impact the MAD120 billion recovery programme would have.

The earthquake highlighted “the chasm between urban online Morocco and rural neglected Morocco. If you go to the Morocco Mall in Casablanca, it is like you are in a separate country.” 

Porter says there was “a lot of talk” about development and improving social and healthcare provisions in the poorer rural areas “but it rarely happens.”

One of the fears was that the earthquake would affect the tourism sector and international guests would avoid the country. Instead, tourism has thrived.

Hala Benkhaldoun, general manager at Intrepid Travel, the largest small-group adventure travel company in Morocco, says: “We saw a 21 percent increase in bookings this August, compared to the same month last year.”

Zina Bencheikh, managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Intrepid, says the importance of visiting and supporting local communities in Morocco could not be overestimated. “Travel still plays an important role in the country’s recovery, with many livelihoods depending on tourism,” she says.

The official numbers back this up. Despite the earthquake, 2023 was a record year for international tourism with 14.5 million visitors, a year-on-year increase of about a third.

In the first seven months of 2024, Morocco’s airports handled a record 18 million passengers, making it the leading African country for tourist arrivals and the 19th most visited country in the world, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation says.

Given the tourist dollars and strong growth in foreign direct investment, especially in the manufacturing and automotive sectors, the Moroccan economy as a whole expanded by 3.4 percent in 2023, growth that looks likely to continue this year.