Monday, January 02, 2006

The Greening of Casablanca

In an interesting article called How Green Was My City, Abderrahim El Ouali says things are about to change in Casablanca. Here is an extract with a link to the full article below.

If they have it their way, Casablanca will be green again. Because now this commercial hub of Morocco is a polluted city, and what were once its famous green parks, refuse dumps.


The World Health Organisation thinks there must be at least 10 square metres of green space per inhabitant in a city. Casablanca has one square metre, if that.

It once had 165 hectares of parks, created during the days of the French protectorate. Like the 18-hectare Hermitage Park created from 1917 to 1927. Over recent years this has become the place for muggings and rapes, and home to drunkards and tramps.

The Arab League park as it is now called was designed by French architect Albert Laprade in 1919. Its famous date palms remain a distinguishing feature across its 28 hectares. But they stand now among weeds and bramble.

Link to full story:
How Green Was My City

In other environmental news: Iberdrola SA and the Moroccan National Electricity Company (ONE) said they have signed a collaboration accord to develop wind farms and combined cycle plants in Morocco.

In a joint statement, the companies said they have set up a committee which will meet at least three times a year to study possible future projects.

The first of these will be a wind farm in Touahar, in north east Fez, with installed capacity of some 70 megawatts.

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