Climate crisis strikes Morocco as heatwave kills at least 21 people in 24 hours

A heatwave in Morocco has killed at least 21 people in a 24-hour period in the central city of Beni Mellal, the health ministry announced on Thursday 25 July – sparking concern about the continuing impact of the climate crisis on the country.

Morocco heatwave kills at least 21 people

The meteorology department said soaring temperatures affected much of the North African country from Monday 22 to Wednesday 24 July, reaching 48°C in some areas.

In Beni Mellal, “the majority of deaths involved people suffering from chronic illnesses and the elderly, with high temperatures contributing to the deterioration of their health conditions,” the regional health directorate said in a statement.

The ministry was not able to immediately say if this was the highest recorded death toll from a Morocco heatwave.

Beni Mellal, more than 200km southeast of Casablanca, was still experiencing temperatures of 43 degrees on 25 July.

Temperatures are expected to drop in the coming days, the meteorology department said. In the tourism hotspot of Marrakesh, they are expected to drop by 10°C on Sunday 28 July.

Six years of drought

Morocco has suffered a sixth consecutive year of drought, and record heat this past winter with January the hottest since 1940, according to the meteorology department which had recorded temperatures approaching 37°C in some places.

The rising temperatures and prolonged drought, which have lowered reservoir levels, are a threat to the vital farm sector.

Water evaporation reached 1.5 million cubic metres (53 million cubic feet) per day, water minister Nizar Baraka said at the end of June.

The High Commission for Planning said in May that the “labour market continues to suffer from the effects of the drought” and reported that the unemployment rate had increased to 13.7% in the first quarter, up from 12.9% in the same period of last year.

Around 159,000 jobs in the agricultural sector disappeared, the figures showed.

Morocco heatwave’s record temperature – 50.4°C – was set in August last year in the coastal resort city of Agadir.

Globally, 22 July was the hottest day recorded since measurements began in 1940, the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation programme said.

It has previously predicted that daily records would be broken this summer in the northern hemisphere and that the planet would endure a particularly long period of intense heat due to climate change.

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