Despite numerous complaints, Lydec, bought by the Casablanca-Settat Regional Multiservices Company as part of an agreement with the French group "Veolia", is unable to provide drinking water to some residents of the upscale Belvédère neighborhood in Casablanca. This is at least what emerges from the testimonies of some of the company’s customers.
The low water flow in large cities like Casablanca worries the residents who denounce the intempestive water cuts. For the Lydec authorities, the available water resources are insufficient to meet the needs of the populations, in this period of water stress.
In Casablanca, the daily life of nearly 212 families in the "Comira" slum has been disrupted for three months. An electricity outage by "Lydec" has plunged them into darkness, exacerbating their precariousness as winter brings its share of cold.
In Morocco, Veolia, the French giant of water and waste management, is in trouble. The root of its troubles is the sale of the Lyonnaise des eaux de Casablanca (Lydec), Suez’s former Moroccan subsidiary in charge of water and electricity distribution, wastewater and stormwater collection, and public lighting, which is still not effective.
Guillaume Pepy, former CEO of SNCF, will soon be in charge of a major Suez subsidiary in Casablanca. His appointment as a future director is on the agenda of Lydec’s general meeting scheduled for June 28.
For the past few days, customers of the National Office of Electricity and Water (ONEE) and delegated companies have been informed of their actual consumption. After three months, the bills received by customers are more than salty.
The coronavirus epidemic and the confinement it imposes have been marked by the multiplication of solidarity initiatives by public and private bodies. Lyonnaise des Eaux de Casablanca (LYDEC) has not deviated from the rule by suspending water and electricity supply cut-off operations during the confinement period.
A man was referred to the judge for having used and then rented a house belonging to a Moroccan resident in Germany, and also for having illegally obtained water and electricity. This Moroccan residing abroad (MRE) had been away for a long time so she was no longer expected.