2023-09-11 20:42:24
The Covid-19 pandemic had caused Morocco to fall back to the levels of poverty that the kingdom experienced in 2014. Since then, tourism has resumed but it only represents 7% of the country’s GDP. Agriculture accounts for 18% of Moroccan gross domestic product but has been threatened for years by the climate crisis and in particular by droughts. That of 2022 was the most violent in thirty years but it does not seem to be calming down, there is even talk of chronic drought, with increasing tensions on water. Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine has added to Morocco’s troubles, weighing on its economy through the energy cost crisis and inflation, which rose from 1.4% in 2021 to 6 .7% in 2022. For the population, it is increasingly difficult to make ends meet, especially as the gap between the poorest and the richest continues to widen.
The most economically vulnerable are also the most vulnerable to natural disasters.
Over the past 40 years, most of the 3.3 million people who died in natural disasters lived in poor countries. The 2010 earthquake killed 140,000 people in Haiti, while an earthquake of comparable magnitude killed 500 in Chile the same year.
The weight of these disasters weighs on populations in the short and medium term, but can also extend over several generations. Children from the poorest families are often taken out of school to work and support the family. This is especially true for girls, who are often married off early so that the family has one less mouth to feed.
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