Government launches major plan to support residents, farmers and businesses after torrential rains.

Morocco plans to invest 3 billion dirhams, equivalent to 330 million dollars, to upgrade infrastructure and aid flood-affected residents, farmers and businesses in the northwestern plains, the prime minister’s office announced on Thursday.

Weeks of heavy rain and releases from overflowing dams have flooded villages, farmland and the city of Ksar El Kebir in the northwest of the country.

Official figures show that 188,000 people have been displaced and 110,000 hectares of farmland submerged. The government has declared the hardest-hit municipalities as disaster areas.

Of the relief budget, 1.7 billion dirhams will go toward repairing basic infrastructure, including roads and hydro-agricultural networks. The remainder will fund rehousing, reconstruction of destroyed homes, support for small businesses and assistance to farmers and livestock breeders.

Moroccan authorities, supported by the army, have set up camps for evacuees and deployed helicopters and rescue boats.

Access to the largely deserted city of Ksar El Kebir remains restricted after the Loukkos River overflowed earlier this month, inundating several neighbourhoods.

Water Minister Nizar Baraka said the Oued Makhazine dam, which reached 160 percent of capacity, was forced to gradually release water downstream after exceptional inflows.

Rainfall this winter was 35 percent above the average recorded since the 1990s and three times higher than last year. Snow cover in the Atlas and Rif mountains reached a record 55,495 square kilometres before shrinking to 23,186 square kilometres, with melting snow expected to further replenish dams.

CBI News reports that Morocco’s national dam-filling rate has risen to nearly 70 percent from 27 percent a year earlier, with several large dams partially emptied to absorb new inflows. The exceptional rainfall has ended a seven-year drought that had prompted increased investments in desalination.