HIBAPRESS – Rabat
Despite the special status that the southern regions of the Kingdom enjoy in the official discourse, as a strategic lever for maritime and logistical development, the reality within a number of ports in these areas reveals deep imbalances that empty these bets of their content and raise serious questions about the effectiveness of planning and the quality of management.
In a number of southern ports, the infrastructure still suffers from clear obsolescence, whether at the level of the berths, unloading and storage equipment, or safety and protection networks. This situation not only affects the efficiency of port activity, but also negatively affects the safety of professionals and the continuity of the related production chains, mainly, in the fisheries sector.
The problems do not stop at the limits of the infrastructure, but extend to the level of basic services within these ports, where professionals complain about the lack of organization, poor management of spaces, and the lack of facilities of the minimum conditions of cleanliness and logistics. Repeated bottlenecks are also recorded in unloading and marketing operations, which causes large financial losses, especially for the traditional and coastal fishing sectors.
One cannot talk about these imbalances without stopping at the issue of governance and defining responsibilities, especially since national ports fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport and Logistics, which oversees the management of this vital sector, and the current minister in charge is Abd Samad Kayouh. This raises legitimate questions about the effectiveness of the adopted policies, and about the mechanisms of follow-up and accountability regarding the rehabilitation of ports, especially in those regions that are supposed to have a developmental priority.
What complicates the situation is the lack of effective coordination between the various stakeholders, the overlap of powers between the concerned sectors, and the slowness of decision-making, which are factors that perpetuate a state of stagnation and prevent the implementation of real reforms capable of keeping pace with the economic dynamics that these regions are supposed to experience.
Also, the promises to modernize the ports and link them to local development projects often remain confined to documents and statements, without being translated into tangible projects that affect professionals and citizens alike, which deepens the gap between official discourse and the field reality.
In view of this situation, the ports of the southern regions seem to be outside the developmental time that is being promoted, despite the strong presence of structured sectors, foremost of which is the fisheries sector, and the accompanying pioneering projects at the level of unloading quantities and the important industrial fabric in the region in the field of valorization of marine products. While the port facilities and the accompanying of these sectors were supposed to form a real lever for employment, attracting investment, and valuing marine resources, this stumbling continues, and questions remain pending about responsibilities.
How long will this bleeding continue? And who is responsible for the stumbling of ports that are supposed to be the Moroccan maritime gateway to the African depth and the Atlantic space?
