🌅 A Personal Encounter at Aftas Beach

Yesterday, I sat on the golden sands of Aftas Beach, watching the waves roll in and sipping orange juice from a small beach café run with love by a man named Hassan. His smile is calm, the kind that makes you slow down and feel time pass a little differently. The café isn’t fancy—a few chairs on a concrete patio, a thatched roof, the scent of mint tea and the sea. But it’s real, and it’s run with heart.

Aftas Beach, the buildings they are proposing to demolish to ‘modernize’ the small beach vibe.

As the sun softened into evening, I struck up a conversation with Majird, a local who shared something that deeply unsettled me: this beach, and others like it, may soon be gone. Not the sand or the waves, but the life around it — the cafés, the surf shacks, the modest homes that give this town its soul. All in the name of “modernization” and preparing for the 2030 World Cup.

It’s happening already, Majird told me — buildings are being demolished in towns south of Mirleft. Small communities erased in silence. And yet, what many don’t realize is that you can’t build international recognition by breaking down what makes you special.

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🏞️ The Beauty We Risk Losing

Morocco’s charm isn’t in steel and glass. It’s in the warmth of people like Hassan. The scent of grilled sardines on a beach. The hand-painted signs. The memory-filled imperfections. The quiet strength of a people rooted in tradition and beauty.

Tourists don’t come to Morocco for sterile perfection. They come for life, for culture, for authenticity. But no one loves burning plastic piles or random trash heaps.

Preserving old town customs and sustainable local businesses doesn’t just protect the environment — it protects cultural identity and community pride.

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♻️ A Vision for a Sustainable Future

If Morocco truly wants to shine on the world stage, here’s an idea: don’t just clean up the beaches — lead the world in zero-waste living.

• What if, instead of demolishing beach cafés, you supported them in becoming models of sustainability?
• What if every town on the coast got a plastic buyback program, where locals could bring in trash and get paid for it — turning pollution into opportunity?
• What if we had subsidies for small business owners to transition to reusable packaging, composting systems, and community-driven recycling hubs?

Let’s tie this to the World Cup with a national campaign: “Morocco: Clean by Nature, Clean by Faith.”

Like Japan, Morocco could be known for respect, purity, and beauty — not just in architecture or landscapes, but in how we treat our environment. Cleanliness is not only good for tourism; it is deeply spiritual and reflective of who we are as Muslims.

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📣 To the Policymakers Preparing for the World Cup:

You have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Not just to build stadiums or attract tourists, but to show the world a model of modern Islamic environmental stewardship.

Stop the demolitions. Pause. Listen. Look.

Instead of bulldozing heritage:

• Invest in waste management
• Offer zero-waste subsidies
• Support sustainable coastal communities

Imagine a Morocco where Hassan’s café is still there in 2030, proudly displaying a “Zero Waste Certified” sign. Where tourists write home about how clean and charming the beaches are. Where children learn in school how to separate plastic from compost, and families see value in keeping their coast clean because they are rewarded for it.

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✅ What You Can Do Right Now:

• Share this post with local and international media.
• Tag local officials and policymakers with #ZeroWasteMorocco.
• Visit local cafés like Hassan’s and ask how you can support sustainability efforts.
• Volunteer or organize a community beach cleanup.
• Encourage government representatives to subsidize plastic recycling, composting, and circular economy startups.

I’m here, and I’d love to help. So would many others who care about Morocco, its beauty, its people, and its future.

Let’s build a Morocco that the world doesn’t just visit — but learns from. Let’s make sustainability something that pays for itself, something that gives back to the people doing the work.

The waves at Aftas still roll gently in. Hassan still brews his tea. But who knows for how long?

Before we build stadiums, let’s protect the soul of the shoreline.

#ZeroWasteMorocco #ProtectAftas #SustainableWorldCup2030