Field Visits: Ciments du Maroc, Sidi Kaouki, Village des Potiers

Ciments du Maroc (CIMAR)
In 1997, L'Association Professionnelle des Cimentiers (Professional Association of Cementers) entered an agreement with the Moroccan Ministry of the Environment. The members of the APC (including Ciments du Maroc) agreed to take all necessary measures to solidify the quality objectives of the National Strategy for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development, to work with the Environment Ministry and other relevant departments for rational management of natural resources and energy, to comply with national regulations relating to environmental protection and rational resource management, to consider an integrated approach for protection of the air, water, and soil, and to limit as much as possible negative impacts on the environment. The APC members signed this agreement because the government created a fund to help industry clean up its pollution, highlighting the potential influence of government-provided economic assistance. Following this agreement, CIMAR voluntarily reduced its dust pollution and gas emissions. CIMAR has also received ISO 14001 certification.

Sidi Kaouki
Wind energy offers excellent possibilities for non-polluting electricity production for medium to high energy needs. It also offers the potential to provide an electricity supply to villages located far from the national grid, where clean energy can help improve social and economic development. In October 2000, Sidi Kaouki started supplying electricity through a hybrid wind-diesel system connected to a local grid at low voltage. Sidi Kaouki makes possible a supply of electricity to households in the Kaouki village, located in the province of Essaouira, in southern Morocco (170 km from Marrakech), which did not have electricity before. The wind turbines are a project of CDER (Centre de Développement des Energies Renouvelables), a government agency with the Office Nationale d'Electricité. CDER sited a wind turbine project here because of the high winds in the area, as it has done in other windy areas of Morocco in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas and other emissions from the process of generating electricity.

Village des Potiers
Village des Potiers (Potters' Village), located 6 km outside of Marrakech, is a place where local potters make and sell their wares. Pottery artisans formerly used biomass and tires for curing their products in traditional ovens. This resulted in greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, forest and agriculture degradation, and a poorer quality product. An NGO called CDRT (Centre de Développement de la Région de Tansift) tried to convince the pottery artisans to use gas ovens instead to address health and air pollution concerns, but the artisans were resistant to change because of the expense of changing ovens. CDRT raised funds and guaranteed loans for the artisans to change their ovens to gas. The first few artisans to use the gas ovens produced a superior product and could work under more conditions (e.g., when it rains) and thus made more money, offsetting the costs of the new ovens. In fact, between the improved product quality and efficiency and the reduced maintenance costs, gas ovens saved the artisans money. After the success that the first few artisans had with the gas ovens, many are now following in their path, with the majority of artisans now using natural gas ovens. As a consequence, the air quality in the area has improved dramatically. Village des Potiers highlighted the role that NGOs and economic assistance can play in environmental protection.