UN Report: Morocco Faces Severe Beach Erosion from Illegal Sand Mining

In this UN report, the paragraph that talks about Morocco presents it as one of the countries most impacted by the illegal extraction of sand. The passage indeed talks about half of the sand used in Morocco, or some 10 million cubic meters per year, which would come from illegal extraction in the coastal areas.

The paragraph in question is titled "Sand mafias, illegal sand extraction and smuggling in Morocco", and specifies that the sand is "often removed from the beaches" in order to allow the construction of tourist and seaside infrastructures. This activity, to say the least flourishing for the smugglers, is not without environmental consequences. The report talks about the coastal strip between Safi and Essaouira where "extraction is pushed to its limit, leaving free rein to traffickers who have ended up transforming a large beach into a rocky landscape".

While parliamentarians were concerned about the situation, the sand sold on the national market coming from clandestine channels was already estimated at 55%. For its part, Aujourd’hui Le Maroc, last June, warned about the worrying volume of sand from the wadis representing 16% of the quantities circulating on the national market, while the sand from crushing does not exceed 7.25%. The dune sand would not exceed 14.49% either.

While this situation can cause a significant shortfall for the State and local authorities, the UN report points to the ecological danger threatening Morocco if the public authorities do not take urgent measures against the phenomenon. And yet, the Moroccan government had adopted in 2017 the implementing decree of Law 81-12 relating to the coastline which prohibits the extraction of sand from the maritime dunes, under penalty of five years in prison. Unfortunately, its application is not strictly observed.