The English would have said it was raining cats and dogs. The rain did not stop falling this Sunday in Tahla, in the province of Taza. Everything started normally, a most generous winter season. Suddenly, several houses were flooded. The sanitation network suddenly stopped serving and channelling the torrential waters that fell throughout the day. In the Al Qods, Mandar Al Jamil, and Ayt Boutayeb districts, people had to rely on their own means to evacuate the floods and clean the ravines to drain the water. The few firefighters and gendarmes going to the disaster areas could do nothing but sympathise with the suffering of the inhabitants. Some clearly state that they were short of means and that they were ashamed in the face of such a situation. "Unforgivable, for years the authorities have known that this area is in permanent danger every winter, without any measure being taken to put an end to it," underlines an inhabitant and member of the Aït Boutayeb Association. At the level of Oued Lahmar, 16 km from Tahla, the floods that occurred almost drowned three people, whose car was carried away by the floods.

The inhabitants had to take charge of themselves. Solidarity between neighbours and the support of young people were a great help in calming things down. Admittedly, many houses are built in areas normally supposed to be non-buildable, but the question is always the same: "Who authorised the construction of houses in such an area?". In addition to this, the inhabitants of several districts, such as those of Al Massira, are still waiting for the installation of a canal capable of avoiding and containing the floods. For the inhabitants, these floods remind local and provincial officials that Tahla still remains below the minimum required for a small town of forty thousand inhabitants. "Neither security up to standard, nor passable roads, nor appropriate sanitation, let alone a disaster management system, we are the poor relation of our province, and perhaps of all the provinces," indignantly says an inhabitant.