The project to combat the silting of the city of Tarfaya has enabled the creation of 7 km of dune cordon and the mechanical and biological stabilisation of 115 hectares of sand up to the end of November, with the goal of reaching a total area of 300 hectares and 22 km of dune cordon by 2016, following a partnership agreement between the High Commission for Water and Forests and the Fight Against Desertification (HCEFLCD), the municipal council, the Agency for the Economic and Social Development of the Southern Provinces, and the Sakia El-Hamra Hydraulic Basin Agency, with a total budget of around 43 million DH, of which the High Commission's contribution is 37 million DH.

According to a statement from the Laâyoune regional directorate of the HCEFLCD, the objective of this project is the stabilisation of dunes through revegetation and the protection of the city's socio-economic infrastructure, which is known for the absence of natural obstacles, the flat topography at its beach, the presence of an enormous stock of sand, the swell and upwelling at sea, combined with trade winds blowing from the north and north-east, which promote the littoral transit of sand and its movement onto the continent in the direction of the wind.

"The programme to combat silting in the Southern provinces—Guelmim-Smara, Laâyoune-Boujdour Sakia El Hamra, and Oued Eddahab-Lagouira—which is based on the High Commission's ten-year plan (2005-2014), concerns the annual treatment of more than 140 hectares to curb the problem of sand encroachment and to protect socio-economic infrastructure and large urban centres by revegetating dunes with species adapted to the desert climate," the statement emphasises.

It adds that among the national action programmes is the action programme to combat desertification implemented in 2001, the main objectives of which are the strengthening of water and soil conservation programmes over an area of 6 million hectares by 2030, and the fight against silting via dune stabilisation at an annual rate of 800 to 1,000 hectares.