The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (ADB) approved on May 26,2003, a grant of $500,000 for in favor of Morocco to enable the country alleviate the suffering of the communities affected by the November 2002 floods.
The main beneficiaries of the grant will be the 341 families hardest hit by the floods in Mohamedia in the Grand Casablanca region, and Settat in the Chaouia-Ouardigha region, two areas located in the North-West of Morocco and through which two cyclic-flooding oueds flow.
The beneficiaries of the grant, estimated at about 2,000 people are among the poorest in Mohamedia and Settat. They comprise mainly farmers and small stockbreeders who lost their agricultural equipment as well as some heads of cattle after the floods. Furthermore, this disaster has exacerbated their already precarious health and nutritional situation, thereby worsening their living conditions.
The Bank's humanitarian aid aims to cater for the needs of the disaster-stricken families, which remained unfulfilled in spite of the different forms of support and solidarity shown after the floods. It will thus help to satisfy the basic emergency needs—food, health and clothes—of the disaster victims, particularly the 341 families identified as being hardest hit by the floods who are still living in make-shift shelters.
On the other hand, the Bank's assistance will be used to partially reconstitute the production means—agricultural tools and inputs, some heads of sheep and cattle—of 141 farming families and small stockbreeders, identified as being the hardest hit in the Settat rural area.
The Bank's assistance will support current efforts to finance emergency needs by national authorities, international agencies, local and international NGOs. Bank Group operations in Morocco started in 1970. To date, the Group has committed a total amount of $3.55 billion on 72 operations. Of this amount, about $2.66 billion has been disbursed. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
