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Beneath a building overlooking Monica Beach in the coastal city of western Mohammedia, a unique sand dune has escaped the clutches of insatiable Moroccan construction contractors.
Here, as elsewhere in the North African tourist magnet, sand has been stolen to feed a growing industry.
Last month, a report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on the overexploitation of this resource in the world accuses the "mafias of the sand" of destroying the beaches of Morocco and over-urbanizing its coastline.
"The dunes have disappeared along the coast of the entire city," lamented environmental activist Jawad, referring to Mohammedia, on the Atlantic between Rabat and Casablanca.
The 33-year-old environmental activist heads Anpel, a local NGO dedicated to coastal protection.
"At this rate, we will soon have nothing but pebbles," says Adnane, a member of the same group.
More than half of the sand consumed each year by the construction industry in Morocco – about 10 million cubic meters (350 million cubic feet) – is illegally extracted, according to UNEP.
"Looters arrive in the middle of the night, especially in the low season," said one resident in front of his grand home on Monica's seafront.
"But they do it less often now because the area is full of people, in any case, there is nothing more to take," added the affable quarantine.
Sand represents four-fifths of the composition of concrete and, after water, the second most consumed resource in the world.
Beaches and rivers are heavily exploited on the planet, legally and illegally, according to UNEP.
& # 39; Official complicity & # 39;
In Morocco, "sand is often removed from beaches to build hotels, roads and other infrastructure related to tourism," according to UNEP.
The beaches are shrinking, leading to coastal erosion.
"The continuation of the work will probably result in … the destruction of the main natural attraction of the visitors, the beaches themselves," warned the report.
The theft of sand on beaches or coastal dunes in Morocco is punishable by five years in prison.
Siphoned off by a donkey, a delivery bike and big trucks, the beaches are stripped from north to south, along a coastline stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic.
"On some beaches, the sand has almost disappeared" in parts of the north of the country, said an environmental activist in Tangier.
"The pressure on the beaches of Tangier is huge because of real estate projects," he said.
In the south, the UNEP report noted that "sandmen have turned a large beach into a rocky landscape" between Safi and Essaouira.
The activist Jawad speaks of "small-scale looting, as here in Mohammedia".
But "then there is the intense and structured traffic by organized networks, working with the complicity of some officials".
As sand mafias act as smugglers, "key figures – lawmakers or retired soldiers – give them permits to overexploit the deposits, without respecting quotas," he added.
Organized Mafia
An authorized sand lover has spoken of a "very organized mafia that pays no taxes" and sells sand "neither washed nor desalinated" and that does not comply with basic building regulations.
These mafia groups have "protection at all levels … they pay nothing because they do everything in cash," added the operator, under the guise of anonymity.
"This trade generates a lot of money laundered".
A simple smart phone can visualize the extent of the disaster.
On a Google Earth map, activist Adnane showed a shaven coastal forest, where the dunes gave way to a lunar landscape, about 200 kilometers south of Casablanca.
Eyes fixed on the screen, he carefully scrutinized each piece of land.
"Here, near Safi, they took the sand for seven kilometers, it was an area operated by a retired general, but there is nothing left to take," he said.
Adnane pointed to another area – exploited, he said, by a politician holding a permit for "an area of two hectares".
But instead, he took "miles" of sand.
The protection of the environment has been designated as a priority by Morocco, in a grand statement after the country hosted the 2016 COP22 international climate conference.
Asked by AFP on the measures to be taken to combat the uncontrolled extraction of sand, the State Secretary for Energy, Nezha El Ouafi, said that " a national plan for coastal protection is being validated ".
The plan promises "mechanisms for evaluation, with protection programs and high status," she said.
Meanwhile, environmental activists are pleading against the "head in the sand" approach in the face of the scale of coastal devastation.
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