Water shortages in drought-stricken Morocco are taking their toll on the country’s iconic hammams.
The beloved public baths have been a tradition in Morocco for hundreds of years. But amid the effects of a six-year drought, the Interior Minister has shut down hammams in Beni Mallal, Casablanca, Tangier and elsewhere, for at least three days per week.
The move to save water comes as damns in the country reach extreme lows. The important Al Massira Dam stands at just 5% of its normal capacity and the population is undergoing “water stress that it has not seen in 30 years,” according to environmentalist Mustapha Laissate, from Rabat.
To make matters worse, January was the hottest in the region since measurements began in 1940. But by closing down hammams, the Moroccan government’s response is not helpful, according to some of the estimated 200,000 people who work in the country’s hammam sector.
It is difficult to close hammam heating systems for part of the week, due to the costs of letting them cool and having to fire them back up again. For this reason, most hammams keep their fires burning, even when they are closed to the public, for example at night. Now they face the choice of whether to keep the systems going during the three-day closures.
Fatima Fedouachi, president of the hammam owners’ association in Casablanca, has suggested it would be better to enforce different daily opening hours. “We suggest that hammams should not be closed three days a week, but rather that they be closed daily in the morning and open from midday to 9:00 pm. That is in order to ensure the continuity of the heating room to keep it hot,” she said.
In addition to fears for jobs in the sector, there is anger at the decision not to include upmarket spa facilities at hotels in the closure order, with public sentiment reflecting accusations that the government is playing class favourites.
Fatima Zahra Bata, a member of Morocco’s House of Representatives, has demanded answers from the Interior Ministry over how the hammam decree would “”increase the fragility and suffering of this class, whose monthly income does not exceed 2,000 or 3,000 dirhams at best.”
As one Rabat carpenter speaking to The Independent put it: “I use only two buckets of water for me and my children,” he said. “I did not like this decision at all. It would be better if they would empty their pools,” he said of local officials.
