The city of Ifrane and its hinterland have donned a magnificent white coat of snow to offer visitors one of the most beautiful landscapes that any naturalistic painter could have conceived and created. The city was completely transformed. There were only beautiful cedar forests stretching towards the sky, all covered in snow.

A beneficial snow to fight against the deadly drying out that these same cedar forests have experienced in recent years of drought. Also, the vast snowfields of Ifrane and its region now offer visitors more than one opportunity for hiking and walking in Ifrane and all along the Ifrane Valley, which has finally regained the normal water flow of its river of yesteryear. The large snowflakes that dance with the wind, especially in the evening, under the light of the street lamps that line the main avenues of the pearl of the Middle Atlas, offer a magical spectacle.

These first snowfalls recorded at the beginning of January 2009 in the city of Ifrane and its suburbs have given a new taste for life to us mountain dwellers.

This gift from the sky is a benefit both for feeding the country's largest water tower, which is Ifrane and its region, and for creating wealth, especially agricultural wealth in the downstream plains, and the energy that the country desperately needs.

Also, neither the extreme cold of the season nor the lack of large financial resources to cope with climatic hazards dampen our joy in welcoming these snows. Thus, the city of Ifrane experienced a large influx of visitors during the past month of December and will certainly experience even more this weekend and in the future, who will come to taste the joys of winter sports.

All these people can easily practise their favourite sporting activity and indulge to their heart's content in skiing, sledging, or simply giving free rein to their imagination by creating snowmen.

We dare to hope that our municipal officials at the level of the city of Ifrane will become aware of the heavy task that is theirs regarding the safety of our fellow citizens or visitors who use the various arteries of the city, which are very poorly cleared of snow, if not uncleared in places. Indeed, one wonders if these are snowploughs clearing the snow in the city or snow groomers preparing slopes for daredevil sliding.

Because as these machines pass through the city's arteries with their blades almost out of service, they leave a layer of 5 to 10 cm of snow on the road, thus constituting a real danger for both pedestrians slipping and for vehicles.