WAYS OF IMPROVING LIVING CONDITIONS
It is important for local and international initiatives to commit themselves to saving a marginalized population whose first concern is survival.
Our approach aims to be innovative and respond to a real need rather than to propagandistic policies. It has to be agreed by consensus with local institutions in association with the heritage issue in which the human factor is the driving force. The ideal would be to bring together all the good intentions, actors, beneficiaries and competent authorities to make this operation a model at local and Mediterranean level.
REHABIMED AS A STARTER MOTOR
Faced with this situation, in the framework of the RehabiMed project the CMEM firstly picks up relations of cooperation and sensitisation and seeks to move agents towards a considered process in order to establish the habit of good management of social heritage without lapsing into charity or makeshift action. The process should focus on human development, linked to the territory, in which the main vestiges of communal life provide the basis for the future generation of respect for humankind and its work in harmony with the environment.
IDENTIFICATION OF THE PILOT PROJECT
The first steps taken this year have shown how difficult it is to reconcile poverty and rehabilitation, because commercial interest predominates when dealing with traditional dwellings in Marrakech.
Most of the dwellings visited to date are occupied by very humble families. The owners of the houses have no plans to rehabilitate or restore. Their aim is to see the tenants vacate the buildings and then put them on the market. The situation is therefore very difficult for tenants who are unable either to improve their immediate environment or to look elsewhere.
State of the one bathroom (WC)
shared by 5 disadvantaged families. |
The owners are not open to action in this respect, as they prefer to recover their property than continue to have it occupied.
For this reason, our current research in collaboration with local actors, urban agencies and Marrakech Council seeks to reclassify traditional dwellings as social housing. Housing of this type in Marrakech benefits from this status because it belongs to the Ministry of habous, the main objective being to allow lower-income families to benefit. The first steps are being taken to draw up a list of buildings with heritage characteristics that are occupied by low-income families with a view to allowing our participatory intervention.
This choice is a perfect justification of the pilot project in the framework of RehabiMed.
Situation of the project houses in the Medina of Marrakech |