Access to Basic Services in Casablanca Shantytowns

SUEZ Environment and its subsidiaries are committed to the daily challenge of protecting resources and ecosystems. The company provides innovative solutions to millions of people and industries in the drinking water, wastewater treatment, and waste management fields. This case study shows how LYDEC provides access to energy, water, and sewage to households in Greater Casablanca.

LYDEC, a subsidiary of SUEZ Environment, operates as a delegated water, sewage, electricity distribution, and street-lighting management contractor in Greater Casablanca (5 million inhabitants, of which 20 percent live in shantytowns and unhealthy housing). Since 1997, when LYDEC started its activities, access to basic services (energy, water, sewage) for populations most vulnerable has developed in two stages:

1. From 1998 to 2005, there was a provisional electrification program for urban shantytowns. Since the start of the contract, LYDEC faced problems in electricity distribution generated from illegal networks in urban shantytowns. It posed serious risks of security for residents, not to mention a high degradation of the quality of distribution. To rectify this situation, local authorities and LYDEC decided to implement a provisional electrification program for urban shantytowns, which 30,000 households in the Casablanca areas have benefited from.

2. On May 18, 2005, the National Initiative of Human Development (INDH) was launched by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, who made it a national priority to eradicate shantytowns and eliminate social exclusion. The INDH program was to combine different economic, social, and environmental development objectives in targeted Moroccan neighborhoods. This Initiative created an adequate institutional and political context in eradicating slums and unhealthy housing in Greater Casablanca. Thanks to this Initiative, LYDEC signed a framework agreement with the Delegating and Greater Casablanca Authorities on September 13, 2005, thereby founding the INDH-INMAE Project Management.

The INDH-INMAE Project Management consists of 70 collaborators. Its mission is to find technical and financial solutions for access to electrical, water, and sewage services programs for 500,000 inhabitants living in settlements. LYDEC’s method is in accordance with the agreement between the different partners regarding information, consulting, studies, decisions, and accomplishments. Up until December 31, 2010, this program required a total investment of €166 million to equip 272 neighborhoods in the Greater Casablanca region.

LYDEC’s goals are as follows. First, it is about ensuring preliminary administrative, technical, and contractual work for the operations. Pre-assessment (land, urban planning, technical solutions, population status, financing), completion of technical analysis (water, sewage, and electricity), administrative procedures for land acquisition, and establishment of the lists of beneficiaries for authorization are all necessary. Second, LYDEC guarantees completion of the work for operations where financing is available, and to carry out the management and follow-up in partnership with all relevant authorities. Third, LYDEC permanently assists the beneficiaries through all phases of the operation: before, during, and after.

Every six months, LYDEC prepares an operational progress report for the on-site upgrading of existing population settlement programs in accordance with the INDH framework agreement signed on September 13, 2005. This report is sent to local and national authorities and partners. By December 31, 2010, there were 32,000 households of the 80,000 in Greater Casablanca that had benefitted from completed operations, or those on the way to completion. Beyond the quantitative targets, the actions of LYDEC are characterized by their governance: dialog with the people and continuous cooperation with authorities. Proactive governance is an approach as strategic as the technical construction of networks.

Prioritizing access to basic services (electricity, water, and sewage) for underprivileged populations living in slums and unhealthy housing is – for the firms in the utilities sector – a key element of their social responsibility. Those actions are made easy when the different contributors in the territory are real partners. In return, they are considered legitimate and are recognized as making contributions from their experiences and their jobs for the improvement of living conditions of the population for better social well-being. Those experiences illustrate the introduction of a solidarity economy in urban development.