The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is pushing to revive a thirty year old plan to build a submarine rail link between Morocco and Spain, local Moroccan press reports.
Previously stalled for economic reasons, the double track rail tunnel would provide a crucial link between Europe and North Africa, according to Morocco World News.
ECOSOC recently convened in Geneva to discuss this and other initiatives, and the submarine rail was promoted by African and European supporters as an economic and even social boon for both countries.
Europe, crippled by austerity measures and other financial woes, could penetrate and uplift the African market, which would in turn provide Morocco with a fiscal boost.
More than any other North African nation, Moroccan has gone to great lengths to make the country favorable to international investors.
Widespread architectural, infrastructural, and energy development projects are under way, though not always to the benefit of the country’s rural population, and the €10 billion transportation project would continue this push to become a world player.
The submarine railway would extend from Punta Paloma in southern Spain to Punta Malabata, which is just east of Tangiers. Albeit longer than another proposed route, this waterway west of the Strait of Gibraltar is said to be the most shallow.
At the end of its annual meeting, ECOSC drafted a resolution calling on the Executive Secretaries of the Economic Commissions for Africa and Europe to explore the project and report back.
This takes place just half a year after Spain ditched the Desertec project designed to create a renewable energy link between the two continents, so these plans shouldn’t be taken as firm until the lights are switched on.
Still, if the project does lift off, it could be completed as soon as 2025.
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
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