After months of tension between Mayor Asmae Rhlalou and her executive, who resisted all her decisions, calm has returned to the Rabat municipality in Morocco. Fatiha El Moudni has been elected to continue the urban development work begun by her resigning predecessor with greater efficiency.
The new mayor, who is 44 years old and familiar with municipal strategies, has inherited a green policy that is considered to be effective, the only issue on which there was unanimous agreement before her arrival at the head of this city of 2 million inhabitants. In this area, the former mayor succeeded in requiring every house in Rabat to have a 75 square metre green space, both for embellishment and to combat drought.
Electric mobility and solar street lighting
Asmae Rhlalou has also installed solar panels for street lighting in Rabat, which is home to several international organisations, including the Pan-African Institute for Development (IPD), the Pan-African Youth Union (UPJ) and United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (GLU-Africa).
Fatiha El Moudni could do even better. Her first ecological project will certainly be to finalise the implementation of the “eCitaro” green mobility project. This is a public-private partnership (PPP) aimed at introducing electric buses manufactured by the German carmaker Mercedes into the city of Rabat. The first test of these vehicles will take place in the first half of 2022.
The challenge of water and waste management
The new mayor of Rabat is also expected to tackle the thorny issue of the privatisation of public services. Delegated management of water and waste, for example, is not to the taste of Fatiha El Moudni’s opponents. In recent years, they have denounced what they call a hold-up by multinationals. And it’s not getting any easier with water stress on the increase. El Moudni’s first decisions in this area will therefore be closely scrutinised.
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El Moudni, who studied in England and Germany, where circular economy practices are used by local authorities, is also expected to promote massive waste recycling in Rabat. The metropolis of the Cherifian kingdom is in great need of this to boost its economy at a time when the municipal budget for 2024 is still unknown. Divided, the members of the executive were unable to approve the 84 million euros (almost three times the amount allocated to the city of Cotonou in Benin) proposed by the outgoing mayor. Fatiha El Moudni now faces an urgent challenge.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi