Mr. Jamaâ El Moâtassim, President of the commune council of Salé, attended the meeting of the 15th session of the Board of Directors of the Agency for the development of the Bouregreg valley, held Wednesday, March 28, 2018. This session was held under the chairmanship of the Head of Government, Saâd Eddine El Othmani, and in the presence of many ministers, the president of the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra region, the presidents of the communes concerned, as well as the director of the Agency with several of his collaborators.

The Head of Government called on all parties concerned by the projects of the Agency for the development of the Bouregreg Valley to contribute effectively to the success of this project and to provide the necessary support to the Agency by giving the financial resources in order to enable it to carry out these projects within the prescribed deadlines.

It is indispensable to contribute the necessary support for the projects scheduled in the program contract and the agreements signed between the Agency and its partners with regard to carry out this development project, El Othmani said, referring to a “delay due mainly to the non-respect by some partners of their financial commitments”.

Mr. El Othmani invited all parties involved to continue to support the Agency and provide it with the financial resources for the implementation of the programmed projects.
This is the last year in the program-contract between the State and the Agency for the realization of these projects, “which calls us to the need to think about the best ways to complete projects that are lagging behind, to ensure the achievement of the expected development objectives of this important project, “said the Head of Government.

He also stressed that this meeting of the Board of Directors of the Agency is of particular importance as it must consider how to make 2018 a year of completion of projects, and thus ensure the realization of the program contract in a reasonable time.

In this regard, Mr. El Othmani urged all actors to consider the possibility of elaborating a further amendment to the current program contract taking into account the changes and difficulties the agency faces, as well as the time needed to catch up with certain projects.

In addition, the Head of Government has highlighted the realization by the Agency for the development of the Bouregreg Valley, a series of projects that have “largely contributed to fluid traffic between the cities of Rabat and Salé, such as the Tramway project, the Hassan II bridge, the Moulay Youssef bridge, the Oudayas tunnel and the N.2 ring road

which will directly link the Mohammed VI Avenue in Rabat to the N.6 national road in Salé on a distance of 8 km, and whose completion rate has reached 90% “.Regarding his role in cultural promotion in Rabat-Salé, Mr. El Othmani noted that the Agency has created its subsidiary “Bouregreg Cultures” to build the National Museum of Archeology and Earth Sciences and the Grand Theater of Rabat, whose work is progressing significantly, calling on all stakeholders to redouble their efforts to achieve it on time.

 

Mr. Jamaâ El Moâtassim, president of the municipality of Salé, took part in a round table on: “The participation of civil society in local governance”, organized by the association Agora, Saturday, March 24, 2018 to Marina in Salé, as part of the annual meeting scheduled for March 23-25, 2018. The seminar was attended by a group of local elected officials, academics and student-researchers.

During his speech, Mr. El Moâtassim stressed the importance of the participation of civil society in the management of local affairs, especially after the adoption of the Kingdom Constitution of the year 2011, and which stipulated expressly on the obligation to respect the principles of participatory democracy, consultation, cooperation and partnership. Especially since the organic law on municipalities has further strengthened these principles, stating the need for the establishment of participatory mechanisms for dialogue and consultation. The president also pointed out that the city of Salé was pioneering to adopt the participative approach in local governance, because of the existence of a powerful, dynamic and active associative fabric. Indeed, the year 2005 was a pivotal year in this area, after the signing of the first Charter of consultation and the constitution of the first advisory committee in the district of Tabriquet, and of which he was the president at the time. Also, this practice has been generalized throughout the municipality during its current mandate, with the collaboration of more than 400 associations grouped into thematic working groups.

Regarding the institutionalization of public consultation, Mr. El Moâtassim reported that the commune of Salé has developed the mechanism of the “Thursday Concertation”, as a monthly consultation meeting organized on the first Thursday of each month, and bringing together different actors particularly associative organizations, interested parties and all citizens in order to examine issues of crucial importance to local development. As an indication, this consultative mechanism was set up in cooperation with the German Cooperation Agency (GIZ) and the General Directorate of Local Government.

This institutional framework, he added, has created a space for consultation on many issues concerning the future of the city and of concern to the ordinary citizen, as in the case of the administration’s relationship with the citizen user, the environment, the cleanliness, the municipal urban transport service, the project of the municipal development plan; and many of whose recommendations have been translated into partly completed decisions and procedures, while others are being implemented. Similarly, he noted that the communal action plan was fully informed by civil society actors and the general public through some twenty thematic workshops, culminating in the creation of of the Fairness, Equal Opportunities and Gender Approach in April, which should study the draft program before being submitted to the communal council for consideration at its subsequent sessions.

This round table was attended by a panoply of representatives of the civil society like Mr. Fikri Benabdellah, on behalf of the association “Rabat Salé Mémoire”, Mr. Anass Serghini, for the association Bouregreg and Mr. Gazoulit, for the Ribat Al Fath association for sustainable development; which speakers emphasized the importance of the participatory approach in managing local affairs, while reviewing a set of successful experiences in this regard, and to which they have been involved through their viewpoints. In addition, they emphasized the need to institutionalize the relationship between civil society and elected bodies, in order to address the various dysfunctions that afflict the city and achieve the coveted sustainable development, without threatening the future of coming generations.

Following the speeches delivered at this meeting, the debate was opened to address a range of issues that are of interest to the attending audience.

As part of the ongoing environmental campaign at the Laâyayda borough, the diagnosis and follow-up committee organized a coordination meeting on Thursday, March 8, 2018 at the borough headquarters, attended by divisional representatives involved in this campaign, together with the consultation committee and the Ozone Company.

This meeting was devoted to the presentation on cleanliness work and the protection of the environment from the division of works and the consultation committee of the borough. Thus, after the discussion of the items on the agenda, it was agreed to expand the field of interventions made during this campaign to extend to almost all schools in the district; and this, through the installation of containers reserved for household waste, afforestation and weeding.

As part of the public awareness of the seriousness of rabies, and in the quest to fight against its proliferation, the municipality of Salé organized, in collaboration with the Regional Delegation of the National Office of Sanitary Security of Food Products , a scientific conference under the theme: “The scourge of rabies: its causes, its risks and its methods of prevention”; and this, Tuesday, March 06, 2018, at the main hall, from 15:30, under the chairmanship of Mr. Rachid Douibi, 1st vice-president of the communal council.

Took part to the enrichment of this meeting a number of specialists from the National Office for Food Safety and the interested civil society, in addition to Ms. Halima Chouika, vice-president of the municipal council of Salé delegated to the communal division of hygiene, Mr. Younes Sedrati, head of the division, as well as a number of elected representatives, civil society associations, civil servants and citizens.

At the beginning of this conference, Mr. Rachid Douibi, 1st vice-president of the commune council of Salé and host of this meeting, stressed the importance of the subject in question because of its important impact on the health of the citizen of the commune of Salé.

Then, in the framework of a presentation entitled: “The scourge of rabies: its causes, its risks and its methods of prevention”, Dr. Zakaria Cherkaoui, President of the Veterinary Center at the Regional Delegation of the National Office for Sanitary Safety of Food Products of Rabat-Salé-Kénitra Region, confirmed the seriousness of the pathology as a viral disease contagious and especially fatal after the onset of its symptoms, affecting warm-blooded animals and transmissible to humans by through a bite or claw. He also reviewed the early signs of this condition, the methods of his diagnosis, the legal texts published against him, as well as the obligation of the joint efforts of all to address the risk of this deadly syndrome; and this, in the presence of many constraints that limit the possibility of a possible final elimination.

For her part, Ms. Halima Chouika gave a presentation on the efforts made by the commune of Salé and the mobilization of available financial and logistical resources, in addition to awareness-raising activities in this area; despite the various difficulties of continuously increasing the number of stray dogs, the inefficiency of the measures taken to counteract this scourge, as well as the insufficiency of the resources allocated in this respect, despite the progress made, in addition to weak citizen interaction with related awareness and prevention campaigns.

And during his presentation under the theme: “The fight against rabies according to a reliable scientific approach”, Mr. Ahmed Tazi, representative of the Association for the Defense of Animals and Nature (ADAN), insisted on the inefficiency of extermination and massacre-based control campaigns, while clarifying other more lenient solutions that have proven effective in other countries such as India and Turkey; and this, through the vaccination of stray dogs, their identification and their sterilization, then their release on the given territory.

At the end of these scholarly interventions, and for this meeting to be more fruitful, the debate was opened to allow the audience to emit a lot of questions and remarks about this zoonotic disease, in order to assimilate all of its circumstances, some of which remain unclear, which has led to further clarification by the experts; similarly, a set of proposals and recommendations have been presented, which will be published shortly on the commune’s website, before being submitted to stakeholders for their activation.

• Presentation by Dr. Zakaria Cherkaoui, President of the Veterinary Center at the Regional Delegation of the National Office for Sanitary Safety of Food Products of Rabat-Salé-Kénitra Region;
• Presentation by Mrs. Halima Chouika, vice-president of the commune council of Salé delegated to the communal division of hygiene.

The Sports Association of Salé Cycling Section organized, under the auspices of the Royal Moroccan Federation of Cycling and in partnership with the District Councils of Bettana and Laâyayda, a National Cycling Race, with the participation of 198 cyclists belonging to 40 clubs from various regions of the Kingdom; and this, on February 24 and 25, 2018.

Indeed, the first day of the race, dedicated to the Senior category, had the organization of the Salé-Khémisset course over a distance of 156 km, while that of the second day of the competition was held on a closed-circuit at Mohammed V Avenue in the Laâyayda district.

At the end of this sporting event, the awards ceremony was held for the first three in each category, namely: Senior, under 23 and Junior.