Morocco’s Power Grid Loses $94 Million Annually to Theft and Vandalism

The National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) indicated, in a report addressed to the Head of Government, Saâdeddine El Othmani, that despite the annual renewal of part of its equipment and the repair of damaged ones, it still fails to control the losses of electricity due to acts of vandalism carried out on its installations, reports the daily Assabah.

The phenomenon of sabotage of electrical installations has become recurrent in poor neighborhoods and on the outskirts of cities, the report notes, deploring the inaction of the authorities to put an end to it, while heavy investments are devoted each year to the acquisition or rehabilitation of equipment.

In this report, ONEE also exposes its growing financial difficulties, due essentially to the acquisition of new infrastructures for the benefit of marshes, airports, stations, etc. as part of its expansion policy, and to the delay in payment of electricity.

To these factors is added the refusal of the State, in order to preserve social peace, to increase the cost of electricity while the price of fuel has increased, indicates ONEE in its report.