Morocco Cracks Down on Illegal Coastal Construction to Protect Environment

"These areas are subject to increasing pressures resulting from urban dynamics that threaten their ecological balance and negatively affect their contribution to sustainable development, as well as their ability to withstand climate change and natural risks," explained the minister, who was responding to a written question from the head of the parliamentary group of the Party of Justice and Development (PJD), Abdellah Bouanou, on the demolition operations of several buildings on Moroccan beaches. "As part of the management of this area to rationalize its exploitation in an appropriate manner, the public authorities have put in place a legal framework for the coastline by providing a set of planning and development mechanisms that must be respected in order to protect, preserve and enhance it," he added.

Laftit also wanted to explain that: "despite these legal measures, and in order to overcome the imbalances facing the coastline, the local administrative authorities, within the framework of their missions of monitoring and repressing violations committed in the field of urban planning and construction, proceed to demolish any building constructed without a permit on public or private state and local authority properties, or in non-constructible areas according to urban planning documents." Referring to the merits of these operations, he specified that these actions have been undertaken "while taking administrative and judicial measures in accordance with the laws and regulations in force against the offenders, in order to stem this phenomenon that affects this natural area, as well as its negative economic and social effects."

And to affirm: "The surveillance measures taken in this area aim to reduce the phenomenon of construction on the coasts, by imposing compliance with the legislative and regulatory provisions in force in the field of monitoring and repressing violations in the field of urban planning and construction."