The deteriorating road surface — due to rainfall and the narrowness of the lane — leads to appalling traffic bottlenecks, while the Ministry of Equipment and Water maintains its silence despite months of repeated appeals from local residents and travelers.
National Road No. 16, the coastal artery linking the provinces of Tetouan and Al Hoceima, turns into a genuine flashpoint with every summer season, as the frustration of thousands of travellers and visitors mounts over the deteriorating stretch at the entrance to the city of El Jebha — a stretch whose condition now poses a real danger to road users.
“We waited more than an hour in the middle of the road because of a single truck. No one intervened — not the rescue forces, not anyone.” — Traveler from the community
The situation was at its most visible last season, when a heavy truck became stuck in the middle of this narrow stretch for hours, with no intervention from the relevant authorities. Long queues of vehicles backed up in both directions — a scene that laid bare a clear inability to handle even the most basic traffic emergency.
This stretch is classified among the most problematic areas in the region’s road infrastructure. Its narrowness, cracked surface, and inadequate lighting fail to meet even minimum safety standards, while the road sees its highest traffic volume during the summer, when thousands of tourists and members of the Moroccan diaspora abroad converge upon it.
The Ministry Is Absent, and Demands Are Piling Up
Since the road’s inauguration, residents of the area and travelers have repeatedly appealed to the Ministry of Equipment and Water, calling for urgent repairs to this vital stretch. Yet these appeals have so far yielded no actual intervention on the ground — no temporary patching, no commitment to a comprehensive repair plan — fueling a growing sense of being ignored among citizens.
A number of citizens hold Minister Nizar Baraka directly responsible for this situation, arguing that the continued deterioration of infrastructure in a region of significant tourist and economic importance reveals a failure in priorities and a lack of coordination between the central government and the provinces.
Consequences That Go Beyond Traffic Congestion
Observers of local affairs argue that the crisis on National Road 16 is not limited to the daily inconvenience it causes travellers — its repercussions extend to the region’s image and the entire trajectory of its tourism and economic development. A visitor who is confronted with this sorry reality from the very moment of arrival does not form a positive impression of the region, and the recurring bottlenecks disrupt the movement of goods and place a heavy burden on local business owners and traders.
With the summer season approaching — and the increased pressure on roads that comes with it — those concerned fear that the situation will worsen and escalate from a traffic congestion crisis into a road accident crisis, calling for emergency intervention that can no longer be postponed.
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Our site will continue to follow this field report, and we will provide updates as soon as we receive any official response from the Ministry of Equipment and Water or the relevant regional authorities.
