Drones con tecnología local para mantener a raya al virus en Marruecos

As the days go by, Morocco shows how seriously it is taking the current health crisis. The epidemic is showing talent and unknown facets from our neighbours. After the 100% 'made in Morocco' respirators or the sanitary masks that Morocco will export to the EU, among other initiatives, it is time to report the deployment of drones with domestic technology thanks to which the authorities keep the coronavirus at bay from the sky. These drones have been used for weeks to carry out surveillance, disinfect public roads and inform citizens. Despite the fact that the majority of Moroccan society has accepted the confinement measures decreed with civility and rigour - the state of health emergency came into force on 20 March - praised for their anticipation outside the borders of the neighbouring country, there have been no end of concentrations of people in popular neighbourhoods, ports or open-air markets during these weeks. And Ramadan is a good time for further gatherings, taking advantage of the relaxation of vigilance at the end of the day and taking into account the markedly family nature of the celebrations. 

"It's really crazy. In just a few weeks, demand has tripled in Morocco and other countries in the region," says Yassine Qamous, director of Droneway Maroc, which distributes the products of the leading Chinese DJI company on the African continent. Until now the use of drones in Morocco had been limited to agricultural work, solar panel monitoring or mapping. A reality that has changed in these times of fighting against the clock against COVID-19.  According to Qamous, Morocco was already one of the continental leaders in the development and use of these unmanned devices. 

Although a large number of the drones come from the Asian giant, the truth is that more and more are being produced by local firms. This is the case of Farasha, a Moroccan start-up manufacturer of drones for thermal monitoring and disinfection of public spaces. The company tested these devices in the district of Harhoura, prefecture of Skhirat-Temara -a town near Rabat-, in mid-April. The company's director, Abderrahman Kriual, noting the growing demand, told AFP this week that they are "preparing a unit for the assembly and manufacture of a drone with disinfection spray to take it everywhere".

Specifically, according to the newspaper L'Économiste on 19 April, the Moroccan firm has designed two devices: one for disinfecting public places such as entrances to hospitals, roads or car parks and another - smaller - equipped with a thermal camera to detect citizens with higher than normal temperatures. Kriual announced that they had already received orders for the manufacture of these devices. "In a few weeks we will have drones that will be supplied to municipalities and factories that will carry out the disinfection quickly so that we can carry out the partial decontamination".

And last week, the prefecture of Skhirat-Temara, in the conurbation of the Moroccan capital, authorised the use of drones equipped with cameras to help the police detect concentrations of people and collective prayers on the nights of Ramadan, reported the local newspaper Al Akhbar. According to AFP, the high-precision aerial surveillance system of these devices is the work of the local company Beti3D, which specialises in cartography.  

Before Temara, Tangier city authorities launched an initiative with the drones as well. On April 21, the city council of the former international city deployed a fleet of drones equipped with loudspeakers that called on citizens in neighbourhoods with the worst traffic conditions to comply with the authorities' guidelines, reported the digital Le360. It should be recalled that in the first weeks of the epidemic in Morocco, young people demonstrated in some districts of Tangiers, some of them with an Islamist connotation - also in Fez - to protest against the confinement. The authorities in the cities of Casablanca and Marrakech have also been using drones in recent weeks to call on the population to comply with containment measures.

But the honour of being the first Moroccan town to use drones against the pandemic goes to Berkan, in the Oriental region, which started using unmanned devices with loudspeakers on exactly 12 April to warn neighbours to stay at home. The prefecture of this city of more than 100,000 people had already equipped itself with drones three years ago to carry out mapping work and fight illegal construction, as echoed in a report in the digital Le360.

With the beginning of the pandemic in Morocco, the International University of Rabat (UIR) offered to the local authorities its aeronautics department, its know-how and also its own prototypes of drones equipped with loudspeakers and infrared cameras to detect night movements. The university located in the Moroccan capital has stood out in recent weeks for its commitment to the fight against the pandemic. Moroccan society also owes its researchers the production of several thousand masks with protective visors for health personnel, high security masks (FFP2), respiratory assistance masks and respirators, as its communications director, Rim Rhmani, explained to Atalayar last April.  

The promising results of the use of these devices during these weeks of the pandemic and the development of a local technology for this purpose augur well for the flourishing of the sector in the coming years, and the widespread expansion of drones to areas already mentioned such as agriculture or the monitoring of energy installations. However, the number of these devices in use throughout the country today is still unknown. 
 

Initially, the general confinement decreed after the state of health emergency will be extended in Morocco until 20 May, just four days before the end of Ramadan. According to the latest official figures, some 59,000 people have been brought to justice for "violation of the state of health emergency". Failure to comply with the obligations associated with the decree can lead to prison sentences of between one and three months or fines of up to 1,250 dirhams (the equivalent of 115 euros).

The local authorities are confident that the measures taken are containing the pandemic which, at the time of writing, has reached 5,548 cases and 183 deaths, with the Casablanca-Settat region being the most affected. According to data from the Moroccan health authorities, some 56,500 detection tests have been carried out since the beginning of the pandemic. These figures are still far from the government's plans. However, this week, the National Institute of Hygiene anticipated that Morocco is close to being able to carry out an average of 10,000 tests per day.