Abdellah Nassif, head of natural risk management at the Ministry of the Interior, outlined how Morocco’s flood warning system developed and presented plans to extend early warnings to all regions of the Kingdom and address existing gaps.
Speaking during a preliminary session following the opening ceremony, Nassif said deadly floods in Morocco in 1995 prompted the country to begin developing an early warning system designed primarily to save lives.
The system was launched in 2003, bringing together the national meteorological service, the relevant river basin agencies and territorial authorities. It covers the process from monitoring conditions to issuing alerts, including warnings delivered through loudspeakers and in several languages.
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Since then, Morocco has experienced floods of a similar nature without any loss of life, Nassif said, describing this as a clear example of the role early warning systems can play.
Drawing on this experience, Morocco developed an integrated system for natural disaster risk reduction based on three pillars.
The first is a legal framework for managing risks, shifting the focus from crisis response to proactive risk management. The second involves investment in disaster prevention through the creation of a Natural Disaster Risk Reduction Fund. The third is a disaster compensation system covering everyone in Morocco, either through insurance companies for those who hold insurance policies or through a solidarity fund for people without insurance.
Nassif also said Morocco had assessed a decade of work on early warnings and natural disaster response, covering the 2016–2026 period, to identify improvements and account for changing conditions on the ground.
A national consultation on early warning systems was recently launched jointly by the Ministry of the Interior and the national meteorological service. The process examined existing arrangements, shortcomings and gaps, and produced a roadmap that includes investment in extending early warning systems to all regions of the Kingdom.
The three-day forum is hosted by the Arab States Broadcasting Union in Tunis and organized by the League of Arab States in partnership with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Discussions will focus on moving from issuing warnings to taking early action that protects lives and livelihoods, as well as the role of technology, innovation and partnerships in improving early warning systems, according to the organizers.
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The Moroccan delegation includes officials and representatives from institutions responsible for risk management, meteorology, civil protection, equipment and water, and geophysical monitoring. Delegations from Arab countries are also attending, alongside representatives of United Nations bodies and regional and international organizations working on disaster risk reduction, preparedness and humanitarian response.
The forum comes amid persistent challenges in disaster preparedness across the region. Figures presented during the opening session showed that Arab countries recorded an average of 1.99 disaster-related deaths per 100,000 people annually between 2015 and 2024, compared with a global average of 0.75.
