Twenty years after its launch by the Sovereign in 2004, the national Cities without Slums (CWS) program is not yet complete. The objective at the time was to improve the living conditions of 270,000 families, but the nature of the phenomenon has pushed this figure up to around 465,000 families by the end of March.
This is having a negative impact on the rate of completion of housing under the program. Speaking before M.P.s, the Minister for Housing provided the figures recorded from the start of the program to the end of March. Of the 465,000 families surveyed, 344,000 have seen their living conditions improved, representing 74% of the total. Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri added that during the current government’s term of office, more than 41,000 families benefited from improved living conditions. It should be noted that the Housing Ministry, in coordination with the Interior Ministry, has adopted a new approach to dealing with the slum phenomenon. One of its components is to involve the private sector. It also involves providing the necessary financial support and guidance. The other key point of the new approach is the mobilization and reorganization of public land for the CWS program. The initial results have been rapid, as this approach has improved the living conditions of over 20,000 families in the Témara-Skhirat province. Similarly, the average annual rate of completion has increased to around 6,200 families benefiting each year from this program during the period from 2018 to 2021. These figures tripled over the 2022-2024 period to reach almost 18,600 beneficiary families per year. In addition, the pace has increased considerably in several provinces. For the Minister, following the success achieved in the province of Skhirat-Temara, the new approach has been extended to the rest of the regions concerned. Several calls for expressions of interest have been launched in Greater Casablanca to provide over 62,000 housing units. In addition, the pace of completion of the CWS program will be stepped up, with the aim of serving 120,000 families over the next five years in different regions of the Kingdom. According to the Ministry, the program is 74% complete. This has resulted in improved living conditions for large sections of the population. It should be noted that 56% of the remaining families concerned by the CWS program are concentrated in the cities of Casablanca, Salé, Skhirat- Témara, Marrakech, Guercif, and Larache. This is why the public authorities have taken a series of measures to speed up the implementation of this program.
M.C.
