It’s Not Over Yet: The Ongoing Impacts of the Moroccan Earthquake
A street cracks from the Moroccan earthquake on September 8, 2023 (source: theticker).
By: Elizabeth Koenck
Thousands of people protested the delayed arrival of emergency assistance in the mountainous Moroccan town of Amizmiz on October 24, 2023, according to the Associated Press. In the wake of the 6.8 magnitude earthquake on September 8, many Moroccan residents of the hardest-struck towns have felt a sense of hopelessness despite the beginning of rebuilding efforts, Equal Times reports. Residents and protestors are particularly frustrated by the delay of shelter-building efforts as winter approaches.
On the government’s part, there are initiatives to provide towns devastated by the quake with resources. Per Associated Press, King Mohamed VI pledged monthly payments of 2500 dirhams (242 USD) to affected households and promised to fund rebuilding efforts, but victims in Amizmiz have yet to receive any cash assistance.
Other impacts of the earthquake still plague Moroccans today. While the government has worked hard to keep children in schools by reshuffling available buildings, these efforts have not fully alleviated the traumas of schools being destroyed and friends being killed, according to New Arab.
Morocco has only 50 child psychiatrists, some of whom do not speak the regional languages necessary to help the most affected and at-risk rural communities, the New Humanitarian reports. The infrastructure needed to support children who lost friends, family, and security because of the earthquake simply does not exist.
Various NGOs, UN groups, and other organizations address what problems they can, but the assistance they offer is transitive and temporary, The New Human continues. The Moroccan government has yet to grant permission for these organizations to set up permanent practices in the earthquake shelter areas.
According to New Arab, young girls and women face higher impacts from the earthquake both in rural areas and in the larger city of Marrakesh. In an effort to continue educating young girls after the destruction of their academic buildings, the Moroccan government set up all-girls boarding schools. However, some speculate that this new separation is only increasing the trauma faced by girls because their families, lacking internet access, cannot keep in contact with their children.
Those in rural communities are more vulnerable and more likely to miss out on opportunities following the earthquake, according to the New Humanitarian reported. Rural Morocco consists of a mostly Amazigh population. Amazigh is the local term to refer to the Berber people who have been living in Morocco for centuries. Even before the earthquake, the infrastructure of Amazigh towns were weaker than that in the rest of the country, and these regions were sometimes termed “The Forgotten Morocco”. The existing challenges in these heavily impacted areas are only exacerbated in the aftermath of the earthquake.
The challenges Morocco faces from the September 8 earthquake still prove monumental. Recovery will be a long and challenging process.