Collapse of two buildings in Fes

Houses threatening to collapse in Fes continue to be a permanent headache for the city's authorities and to jeopardize the lives of several thousand of their residents.

Last Friday, two buildings collapsed early in Fes, leaving four injured, according to a MAP dispatch citing local authorities.

The same source confirmed that the collapse took place in Jnane Iraki, in the popular Sidi Boujida district, in the old Medina, where certain anarchic constructions flourish.

A woman, seriously injured in the incident, was transferred to the intensive care unit of the University Hospital Centre (CHU) of Fes.

According to the authorities, the two buildings, built in an anarchic manner, were cracked and had been threatening to collapse for years already, and their inhabitants had reportedly received an evacuation notice to which they did not follow up.

This is the third incident of this kind in Fes during the last two months, after the collapse of two other dilapidated buildings due to heavy rains, also without causing any deaths. A tragedy that reminds us of the gravity of the problem posed by houses threatening to collapse in the spiritual capital of the Kingdom. In the old Medina alone, the number of these amounts to 4,000, of which 1,800 are in an advanced state of decay.

It should also be noted that about 144,000 constructions threatening to collapse are located in 31 Medinas and are inhabited by 740,000 households, or 4.5% of the urban population, according to the Ministry of Housing, Urban Planning, and City Policy.

The officials of this department estimate that the solution to this problem requires a budget of 10 billion dirhams, and that the Moroccan State had devoted an envelope of 1.35 billion DH (about 122 million euros) between 2003 and 2011 to provide solutions to this phenomenon through measures that benefited 87,000 households.

According to housing experts, constructions threatening to collapse in the Kingdom are located essentially in two main forms of urban fabric, namely the Medinas, notably those of Fes, Casablanca, Oujda, Marrakech, Salé, Rabat, Meknès, and Tétouan, and non-regulated housing districts.

While waiting for the officials and competent authorities to take the necessary measures to eradicate this scourge, houses threatening to collapse continue to cause tragedies like the one that occurred in the old Medina in Casablanca in 2012, causing the death of several people and dozens of injuries. This is also the case of the collapse of a three-story house in Sidi Fateh in the old Medina, leaving five dead. It involved a septuagenarian, two children, and a young man. Another two-story house collapsed on its inhabitants, leaving three dead and more than five injured. It was on Saturday, June 9, at Derb Maîzi.

Provider / Source : M.T, Libération