Mohammed Manfalouti – HIBAPRESS
It is the alarm bell that rang in a frightening and terrifying way, signaling the sequence of fire incidents in agricultural crops in the agricultural granary of Morocco, Chaouia, and the areas bordering it. The dream of most farmers has turned into a nightmare, raising the level of sleep from their eyelids, fearing for their agricultural crops that have come this year with abundant goodness after years of drought.
After a series of fires in the province of Settat, which caused heavy losses, the interventions of the civil defense men were not successful despite their diligent efforts and their field presence, and the constraints of long distances and the outbreak of fires in various areas scattered even their attention and complicated their movements, here are the fires that do not leave and do not let, broke out during the past two days in the territory of the province of Berrechid, specifically in the village of Lakwasem, the commune of Oulad Abbou, leaving vast areas of ash and charred straw that consumed about 60 hectares… With the significant rise in temperatures, with the blowing of the Chergui winds and the vastness of the agricultural fields and their cohesion and their proximity to each other, and the distance between them and the interventions of the civil defense men coming from the city of Berrechid through roads that are originally dilapidated, with all these reasons, the flames of the fire found its favorable opportunity and gave it enough time to devour additional hectares of hectares of wheat and barley, despite the limited intervention by farmers and citizens in their primitive ways to contain it…They are vast areas of agricultural crops that were distributed between wheat, barley and other seeds fields, which were considered until yesterday, the great hope for the farmers of the region, perhaps they would make them rich from asking about the past years of drought, but today they have become a fire that is reaped as if they did not sing yesterday…Successive and continuous fires have cast their frightening shadows on the reality of the agricultural sector in our country, its causes remain the subject of investigation by the investigators, but the deterrent measures today are no longer sufficient, but awareness campaigns must be intensified about the dangers of fires and their repercussions on the national economy and purchasing power…The ministry in charge of the agricultural sector and with it the rest of the interveners must also find alternative solutions and a tight strategy and strengthen the civil defense fleet with equipment that suits the size of fire disasters, with the need to bring its services closer to the vast cultivated areas by establishing civil defense points in each of the center of Oulad Said, and Jemaa Oulad Abbou, and Keyser, and the municipality of Amzra, whose interventions are of a proactive nature, perhaps it will alleviate its effects and contain its expansion so that it does not affect other fields and neighboring villages and residential gatherings.
