Project description : Tetouan urban development project, 608-0194

The project focused its efforts on the Community Infrastructure Fund (FEC), the Municipality of Tetouan (MUN), and the National Shelter Upgrading Agency (ANHI), but included central-level counterparts in all activities. While most TA activities ended in 1993, the grant was extended for the environmental part of the project, consisting of Raleigh-Tetouan twinning activities and the Sewerage Master Plan studies, which are still in progress. Project advisors designed a property tax collection system; analyzed municipal administrative structures; conducted an analysis of taxes collected by the MUN, and computerized the municipal revenue office; and installed a system that will allow the MUN to keep trade of beneficiary payments. In addition, the project advisors completed a Land Development Strategy for the Zone d'Amenagement Concerte (ZAC); completed a study of MUN's solid waste management services; procured Geographic Information System (GIS) equipment and provided training in its use; and developed a computer mapping for Tetouan (Dersa), including hardware, software, and training. Finally, the project provided MUN personnel a 4-week training course in management information systems; analyzed an RFP for a Sewerage Master Plan study; and completed an industrial zone study for Samsa to increase project revenue stream. An initiative to improve recovery of real estate taxes by computerizing property tax rolls was interrupted. A review of Tetouan's Public Works Functions and procurement of sewer-related equipment is ongoing. This ambitious project was meant to test a wide range of service and shelter options, which required enormous institutional strengthening. In many cases, external events (e.g., procedural changes, changes in political leadership, and reorganization of Tetouan) undermined project success. In fact, many project elements, especially in municipal assistance, were implemented but later discarded; the GIS systems envisioned for municipal financial management, for example, were moved to a separate GIS section in the Urban Community following restructuring. However, the systems are now available for users within all city departments. It would have been impossible to predict these changes, and the project should still be considered a model for future TA projects. Many ideas are germinating that will take years to flower. For example, staff from the Direction Generale de Cadastre (National Land Survey office) recently visited Tetouan to view the GIS system and determine its sustainability for the national office in Rabat. Solid and liquid waste continue to be widely discussed, and it is clear that in the near future Tetouan will search for alternative funding to construct a sewage treatment plant.