HIBAPRESS – Abdelatif Baraka
The local authorities in the city of Casablanca are preparing to launch a decisive phase in dismantling one of the last shantytowns in the Ain Sebaa area, immediately after the end of the Eid al-Adha holiday, in a move that falls within the framework of continuing to implement the program to eliminate inadequate housing.
According to consistent data, the authorities have begun in recent days to notify the families residing in the "Sidi Abdellah Belhaj" shantytown of the date of the demolition and relocation operation, while granting a time period that takes into account the privacy of the Eid period, in preparation for implementing the operation under organized conditions. This initiative falls within a broader vision aimed at ending the manifestations of informal housing at the level of the Ain Sebaa Al-Mohammadi district, where this intervention is expected to constitute the effective end of the last shantytown in the region, after decades of unregulated expansion. Informed sources confirmed that the operation is being carried out according to a participatory approach, through coordination with the concerned residents and some civil actors, with the aim of ensuring a smooth transition and avoiding any social tension, while preserving the dignity of the beneficiary families. Officials are betting on the success of this phase by enhancing efforts to improve the urban landscape of the economic capital, and reducing spatial and social disparities, in the context of a continuous dynamic to restructure a number of neighborhoods that have remained for years outside the standards of adequate housing.
