Demolition Begins on 700-Home Neighborhood in Salé for Urban Development

The demolition work of the Ounk J’Mel neighborhood, a hamlet of 700 houses built years ago on the slope of a hill overlooking the Bouregreg valley, and which has some 3,000 families, has begun. Ahead of this operation, which is part of the upgrading of the region supervised by the Agency for the Development of the Bouregreg Valley, evacuation notices in execution of a sectoral development plan adopted by the municipality of Salé, which takes into account the social support of the population concerned, had been sent to the inhabitants, according to Al Akhbar.

At the announcement of the demolition of the Ounk J’mel neighborhood, the inhabitants had expressed their discontent. Those who have built their houses according to the rules, by obtaining building permits and connection to the drinking water and electricity networks, are mainly demanding fair compensation or appropriate alternatives. According to most of them, the information according to which the authorities could offer land plots in the Bouknadel region, in the suburbs of Salé, is false. The proposed site is far from their workplaces, schools and essential services.

This is not the first time that the Ounk J’mel neighborhood has been demolished. In 2011, the prefecture of Salé had ordered the evacuation of this neighborhood with the support of the public force due to the dangerousness of the geographical nature of the area. Except that at the time, the inhabitants had clung to their houses.